To Survive and Thrive, Remember Darwin’s Law

Posted by Greg Bustin (May 1, 2005)

Excerpted from the book, Take Charge! How Leaders Profit From Change, by Greg Bustin.

When Charles Darwin’s The Origin of the Species was first published on November 24, 1859, it caused an immediate sensation because of the controversial theories it introduced about evolution and the implications for Creation.

Beyond its historical, scientific and even religious significance, the lasting effect of Darwin’s work - subtitled “By Means of Natural Selection or The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life” - is its imprint on and relevance to business.

Consider this Darwinian perspective:

It may metaphorically be said, that natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinizing, throughout the world, the slightest variations; rejecting those that are bad, preserving and adding up all that are good; silently and insensibly working, whenever and wherever opportunity offers [Darwin’s emphasis], at the improvement of each organic being in relation to its organic and inorganic conditions of life. We see nothing of these slow changes in progress, until the hand of time has marked the lapse of ages, and then so imperfect is our view into past geological ages, that we see only that the forms of life are now different from what they formerly were.

Darwin’s theories of “natural selection” and “survival of the fittest” are manifestos for today’s business leaders.

The line that separates successful companies from those that habitually under-perform or fail altogether is such a fine one that leaders, as Darwin suggests, may miss seeing it “until the hand of time reveals it.” Yet that line - while fine - is nevertheless distinct, and usually unforgiving.

Substitute the word “organization” for Darwin’s words “organic being” and the point comes home. “All that we can do,” continued Darwin, “is to keep steadily in mind that each [organization] is striving to increase in a geometrical ratio; that each at some period of its life, during some season of the year, during each generation or at intervals, has to struggle for life and to suffer great destruction.”

Leaders looking to lead during changing times will do well to be mindful of four simple but powerful guidelines that take their cue from nature, and have been well deployed by those business leaders, generals, kings and queens and sports stars that history has judged to be the best of the best.

Here’s the first of the four. And while this guideline may sound simple to implement, like many timeless truths, it is often easy to understand but difficult to follow:

Grow where you’re planted

You should not try to be something you’re not. It’s too hard, rarely any fun, and most people see through it. Organizations that withstand the forces of change are led by those who understand what their companies do best. Whether you call it focus, core competency or addition by subtraction, successful leaders say they would rather be great at two or three things than mediocre at 10. The remarkable French restaurant Lutèce on New York’s East Side has “played a crucial role in the culinary development of the United States almost from the moment it opened its doors in 1961.” But on the eve of its Valentine’s Day 2004 closing, its owner (who had purchased the restaurant in 1994 from the founder) acknowledged that, “We probably made a wrong turn a couple of years ago when we decided to make this menu edgy and more modern.” It can be hard, as Darwin noted, to understand the gradual effects of a misguided decision until months or years later. But abandoning an organization’s strength is almost always risky. Great leaders build on strengths and minimize weaknesses.

Brian Alford oversees the Economic Development, Community Affairs, Community Relations and Corporate Communications functions at OGE Energy Corp. On the wall outside his office hangs a framed poster entitled “The Essence of Survival.” It reads, “Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle…when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”

Taking charge in changing times is - before it is anything else - a matter of survival.

Remember Darwin’s Law

From the pre-Cambrian swamps Darwin studied to the battlefields of the world to a business climate of change, confusion and uncertainty, the maxims are the same. Stay alive, adapt and execute your new plan. Your responsibility as the leader of an organization caught up in changing times is to keep your organization alive through honest means, and to keep things moving forward.

If you remember nothing else, remember Darwin’s view of success: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it is the one that is most adaptable to change.”

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