Naturally built to last

An interesting discovery: company who see themselves as living organisms tend to outperform those who see them as mechanical systems. Lessons for consultants: let’s try to improve a living organism, not just a process.

Companies That Mimic Life
by Jay Bragdon and Jeanne Veatch-Bragdon

In Reflections, the journal of the Society for Organizational Learning

Companies that mimic living systems have been gaining market share over more traditionally managed firms, which generally model themselves on mechanical systems. These two management styles affect people and nature in very different ways. and this largely explains the differences in their market performance. Firms that mimic living systems have an existential awareness that they are living communities of people, committed to serving other people, and that they all depend on nature for their sustenance. These companies instinctively put a higher value on living assets (people and nature) than they do on non-living (capital) assets because they recognize living assets are the source of capital assets, and the reason for their existence as firms. this fundamental recognition creates spontaneous demands within the firm to live harmo niously and respectfully with the larger living systems on which we all depend (biosphere, society, markets). This desire to affiliate with life is enormously appealing to people. It explains why these companies tend to attract the most committed employees and strategic partners, the most loyal customers and the most patient investors. firms that think of themselves as profit-making machines, by contrast, place a higher value on non-living capital assets than they do on living ones.

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