CorporateNature Metaphor Series, No 93
Efficiency leads to displacement. In agriculture, sugar cane is more efficient than sugar beet in capturing the sun's energy and storing it as sugar, so the bulk of sugar produced in the world is now cane sugar. Similarly, the potato is more efficient than turnips in capturing and storing energy as starch, so it has displaced turnips in European agriculture since its introduction from the Americas in the 16th century.
In the industrial world, the Flying Geese Model in East Asian economic development shows industries (production of commoditised goods) being transferred from more advanced to less advanced countries. At some point, the Bangladeshi textile industry or the Chinese chemical industry simply became more efficient than Japan's and Japan found itself unable to compete against them, just like turnips and sugar beet had to give up competing against potatoes and sugar cane.
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| Flying Geese (Source: Wikipedia) |
