During this past July, Daniel J. Finkenstadt and Tojin T. Eapen published a book entitled Bioinspired Strategic Design: Nature-Inspired Principles for Dynamic Business Environments, which shows that the same three capabilities essential for the survival of living organisms in harsh environments – efficiency, resilience, and prominence – are also critical for organizations in their process of navigating through their own hostile environments.
I spoke with both authors shortly after the book's publication, and during our conversation, I asked them: "What are bioinspired strategies and how do they help companies survive?" Here is their complete answer:
The bioinspired strategies described in the book draw inspiration from adaptations and mechanisms found in living organisms to solve complex problems. These strategies can be analogically applied to identify survival strategies applicable to human organizations, including companies.
This approach of analogically associating nature with business problems also encourages viewing business operations and challenges as part of an interconnected system.
Bioinspired strategies help companies survive by improving their efficiency, resilience, and prominence (we call it "ERP" capabilities) in challenging environments.
The key lesson in the book can be described as follows:
"The effect of any action on survivability cannot be understood by merely looking at its impact on one of the three ERP factors, efficiency, resilience or prominence that it seeks to modify, but requires looking at indirect effects mediated by the other two factors."
This means that a company’s actions don't exist in isolation – they can have ripple effects across all three factors, which together determine the company's overall ability to survive and thrive.
Firstly, companies can optimize their efficiency (E) by studying how organisms efficiently manage limited resources through principles such as resting, reduction, and reuse.
For example, consider how certain desert plants, like cacti, have adapted to conserve water in arid environments. They have developed specialized structures to store water and minimize water loss through transpiration. This natural strategy can inspire businesses to find innovative ways to conserve and efficiently use their critical resources, especially in resource-scarce operating environments.
Secondly, nature's lessons in adaptation to external forces guide business on resilience (R). Specific principles found in nature such as replacement, repair, and reinforcement can help businesses become more adaptable to market changes and crises.
For example, consider the well-known case of how camels store fat in their humps for long journeys. The camel's hump illustrates the role of reservoirs and reinforcements in survival when faced with extreme unpredictable forces. This principle is also found in business environments, such as building up buffer stocks or cash reserves to manage uncertainty.
Thirdly, the concept of prominence (P), inspired by how organisms balance their visibility towards predators, prey, and mates, can be applied to managing complex relationships that involve both attracting and avoiding attention from observers.
In nature, prominence capability is apparent in the ability of various cephalopod (squid, cuttlefish, octopi) species to alter their appearance in the presence of different observers (predators, prey, or potential mates).
In the book, we show how cephalopods' strategies for managing visibility can be applied to startups dealing with various stakeholders like investors, competitors, and customers.
Nature-inspired strategies offer design principles such as combination, removal, and segmentation. These serve as practical guidelines for generating ideas and managing trade-offs in strategic decision-making. By looking to nature for inspiration, businesses can discover innovative solutions to complex challenges and enhance their chances of long-term survival and success.
What do you think of Daniel and Tojin's ideas? Has your company implemented any methods that use nature as inspiration to solve problems?