Environment makes chimps and listed companies aggressive, and bonobos and cooperatives peaceful

By George ILIEV
CorporateNature Metaphor Series, No 90

Chimpanzees and bonobos are very similar genetically but very different behaviourally: chimps are aggressive while bonobos are peaceful apes.

In the corporate world, companies and cooperatives are similar legal entities but behave very differently: stock-market listed companies are aggressive in their drive for reporting quarterly profits, while employee-owned cooperatives (e.g. the John Lewis Partnership) are relaxed about profitability and more focused on building a collaborative culture.

The difference seems to be derived from the relationship with the external environment. Bonobos and chimps live on two opposite sides of the Congo River and diverged as two different species about 900,000 years ago. The environment on the left bank of the Congo, where the bonobos live, is less competitive as food is plentifu. On the other hand, the environment on the right bank, where the chimps are, is more stressful - partly because the chimps have historically had to share their habitat with their bigger cousins: the gorillas.

In the corporate world, it appears that "chimp" organisations that are obsessed with external competition also mirror this into internal competitiveness and aggressiveness. While the bonobos of the corporate world build their organisation on the basis of cooperation: like proper left-wing "Rive-Gauche" intellectuals.

Bonobo (Source: Wikipedia)

Entrepreneurs approach opportunities in two ways: like monkeys or like chimps

By George ILIEV
CorporateNature Metaphor Series, No 73.

Capuchin monkeys and chimpanzees both enjoy eating nuts (see documentary video below). Cracking a nut open is no rocket science but for a monkey (or even a human toddler) it can be quite a challenge.

Monkeys waste a lot of energy bashing rocks against the nut without seemingly learning much from each attempt. Chimps and other great apes, on the other hand, plan and execute the blow to the nut shell with precision learned from watching others in the family. Thus, chimps often manage to crack the nut with a single strike.

Some entrepreneurs adopt the monkey approach to tackling problems and opportunities. Others take after the chimps. Younger entrepreneurs are generally more likely to follow the "monkey way" of cracking nuts: multiple trials, multiple errors, slowly learning from their own mistakes and expending a lot of energy in the process. Mature entrepreneurs are more likely to resemble chimps: having observed others for a long time, they have learned from these observations which nuts to tackle and which to leave aside, and how best to crack the nut with the least amount of energy.

Yet, whether you are a monkey or a chimp, when you reach a nut (an opportunity), you'd better start cracking it as best as you can. Or else another species will eat it.

Google's "Don't Be Evil" philosophy is encoded in the evolution of the human fist

Fists compensate for fangs in nature; Algorithms compensate for aggression in business
George ILIEV

Because of the unique proportions of the bones of the human fingers, a clenched human fist is 4 times as rigid as the fist of a chimpanzee, according to research published in the Journal of Experimental Biology. This allows humans to deliver bone-breaking blows with their knuckles and may partly explain how humans evolved (and survived) through an era of large predators while at the same time losing the fangs that served a defensive role in earlier humanoids and in present-day great apes.

Human fingers have evolved to fold neatly into a fist without leaving a gap in the middle. This makes the structure stiff, while chimpanzees fingers curl up in a way that always leaves the centre hollow. The human thumb adds extra support to the structure by buttressing it sideways and turns the fist into a formidable defensive tool.

The evolution of the fist resembles the rise of Google and its "Don't Be Evil" motto. By giving up the fangs of aggressive corporate techniques such as cornering markets, leaning on suppliers and squeezing long hours out of employees (think investment banks), Google has built a "gentle empire" of innovation and creativity. Google's development of superior data crunching algorithms is the virtual fist that punches heavy blows in the online world.

(Photo: Google HQ, Mountain View, California, May 2009)

(Photo: Human fist, March 2013)