How to win against rip currents and Asian competitors? - Differentiate and specialise!

By George ILIEV
CorporateNature Metaphor Series, No 112

How do you escape a rip current at sea? Never swim straight back towards the beach and directly against the rip. Instead, swim sideways along the beach for 100 metres and then head towards land. Rip currents are narrow flows and should be avoided, not fought.

The same is true of global trends. If you are a western company or university, there is no point in fighting against the rise of Asian competitors. Instead, simply do things differently. If you have just fallen out of the Global Top 100 because five more Chinese entities have entered the ranking and displaced you, don't just fight back head on, on all fronts. Instead, decide in which direction you can differentiate and specialise, and focus on cornering the market in that particular field. It is unlikely that you will have to make a choice between more than two possible ways forward. 

Isn't this just like at a beach with a rip current: all you need to do is swim along the beach either to one side, or to the other.

Rip current diagram (Source: Wikipedia)

Humans may have been forced to walk on two feet; Entrepreneurs are often pushed to launch a startup

By George ILIEV

CorporateNature Metaphor Series, No 111

In evolution, we are often told that our human ancestors in Africa chose to go down from the trees and venture into the savannah walking on two feet. Recent research shows they may not have had a choice when the forest cover on the continent started disappearing 2-3 million years ago.

Similarly, many entrepreneurs become entrepreneurs not by choice but out of necessity: after conflict in the workplace, losing their job, or out of frustration with their current job.

When push comes to shove, the entrepreneurs simply pick up the shovel.

Man with shovel (Source: Wikipedia)

Note: The research quoted is from The Economist, May 30, 2019: Human beings may owe their existence to nearby supernovas. Cosmic rays from them would have changed the world’s vegetation.

Focus comes from natural selection in animals and from individual choice in humans

By George ILIEV
CorporateNature Metaphor Series, No 83

Nocturnal lemurs seem to have lost their trichromatic colour vision in order to be better able to see fruit at night, shows new research. Colour is not visible at all in the dark but brightness is, so natural selection has weeded out adaptations that are no longer necessary, allowing the lemurs to focus on what is important for their survival.

Successful people also have "focus" as one of their key character traits. However, this does not mean one should only ever focus on one thing and nothing else. T-shaped people are the benchmark: broad skills across disciplines (the horizontal bar) and deep specialist skills in one area (the vertical bar). Yet, the vertical bar does not always start out in the middle (T): it can appear on the left (Г) or on the right. It is down to individual choice where the T bar will start from and what one will focus on. After all, you are what you take time to become.

Lemur (Source: Wikipedia)