Services in the economy and living organisms in nature come in three degrees of mobility

The economy is based on three groups of services with different degrees of mobility, just like in nature there is diversity in fixed plants and mobile animals.

CorporateNature Metaphor Series, No 118


1. FIXED-LOCATION SERVICES

Physical services delivered on location resemble a tree.

A tree has its roots firmly in the ground and depends entirely on the local environment for sustenance. The tree cannot move if the soil is not fertile or the amount of rainfall or sunlight is insufficient and gradually withers away. In a similar way, a corner shop, a local cafe or a hair salon are geographically fixed and depend on a constant flow of customers. A long period of “drought” would make the business go bust.

2. LOCATION-CONNECTING SERVICES 
Shipping and delivery services resemble a camel.

A caravan of camels delivers goods across the desert and the goods have to survive the journey undamaged. Similarly, an Amazon Prime van makes a journey to deliver goods that remain unchanged in the process of transportation. Often there may be obstacles along the way: unclear caravan trails in the desert for the camel or heavy traffic for the delivery van, but as long as both are on the move, they keep serving their mission of connecting.

3. VIRTUAL SERVICES
Online services resemble a condor in the sky.

The condor soars in the clouds at extraordinary heights of more than 5,000 metres and covers vast distances in a single flight. In a similar way, virtual services like online banking are offered "in the cloud" and reach customers thousands of miles away. While both depend on a physical location for their nesting site or operations hub, both are also extremely mobile. Migrating birds can cross continents when the conditions require it, just like data can be moved between data centres across countries if national regulations change. 

Common Ash tree
(source: Wikipedia)

Bactrian Camel
(source: Wikipedia)

Andean Condor
(source: Wikipedia)