In an increasingly complicated and uncertain environment, businesses can take a page from nature’s transformation playbook to become more flexible.

Many people are familiar with Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory of natural selection,1 which explains why certain qualities in species (plants, animals, and other organisms) increase their chances of survival. Plants, animals, and other species use several strategies, including adaptation, to improve their chances of survival.

Adaptation is one of nature’s most essential transformation tools, and a major mechanism of natural selection. It explains how cactus and camels can survive in harsh desert settings, as well as why some creatures have developed camouflage to avoid predators.

Today, however, climate change and other factors are forcing species to adapt more frequently and quickly than ever before, often quicker than natural selection can keep up. Few animals can adapt quickly enough to environmental changes, but there are several situations that offer hope.

It is becoming increasingly obvious that all animals require the ability to recognize change and adapt fast. Businesses can learn from nature’s odd parallels about how to survive and thrive in the face of increasing change and uncertainty.

Lessons on adaptability

One of the most striking similarities between nature and business is that the primary objective of the individuals in these systems — creatures and businesses — is survival.

Today, no industry or company is immune to disruption; however, many organizations are not prepared to adapt rapidly enough to survive accelerated change.

To position themselves for long-term success in this changing climate, corporate leaders must stress flexibility as an essential organizational quality. Businesses can no longer rely on standard business fitness metrics. They must shift their mindset and transform fast and at scale in order to become adaptive now and survive tomorrow, but how? 

We will focus on three main ways that businesses might begin their paths to become more adaptive and hence better prepared for an uncertain future. Businesses can:

• Take a new perspective on business fitness.
• Prepare for several conceivable futures.
• Avoid making frequent mistakes.

1. Take a new perspective on business fitness.

The fittest organisms are those that are most likely to survive in their respective habitats. The fittest species are not always the largest, strongest, or fastest. Rather, the species that can thrive in their specialized surroundings are more likely to survive and reproduce.

In the business world, size, reach, and efficiency have always been regarded as leading markers of business fitness. For example, Sears previously dominated North American retail with thousands of locations and an efficient supply network.

Today, Sears Holdings has closed the majority of its locations.  Failure to comprehend customer requirements, insufficient investment in e-commerce, and ineffective leadership were among the causes that contributed to Sears’ collapse. These characteristics hampered the company’s ability to change, and its business model failed under the strain of new market forces.

Many more well-known examples of corporations that were formerly strong in their industry but failed to adjust to changes include Kodak and Blockbuster. These anecdotes oversimplify complex circumstances, yet they teach a valuable lesson.

Many company leaders continue to assume that traditional metrics of market domination provide an unbeatable competitive edge. However, as disruption intensifies, research suggests that the largest and “strongest” business leaders are not always the ones who will survive. This has become increasingly apparent as the pandemic has progressed, with many businesses, large and small, battling to endure the COVID-19 disruption and its consequences.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the pace of disruption, highlighting the scope of globalization and the interconnectedness of technology, society, and environment in novel ways. This paradigm change has also shown the vulnerability of many companies that were previously regarded as industry leaders.

Not all businesses have struggled during the pandemic, though. Some enterprises, such as so-called “work-from-home” companies and e-commerce pioneers, were in the proper place and time. Others have remained steady due to a significant emphasis on resilience, financial stability, and disaster preparedness. 

Even fewer have exploited the crisis to strategically develop or grow their businesses. These companies have shown an exceptional capacity to adjust quickly to changing conditions. These organizations are ideally positioned to compete in the face of uncertainty in the present, future, and beyond.

The examples of adaptations to COVID-19 disruptions demonstrate that organizations that understand their environments and are well-positioned to detect and react to change promptly – or, better yet, proactively – are more likely to not only survive, but prosper in the face of disruption.

Beyond COVID-19, old measurements of fitness will no longer be applicable; organizations must reinvent how they will produce and retain value in the future.

Fitness in the future will be determined by a variety of factors, with variations unique to each area, industry, and firm. However, all businesses may invest in three revolutionary value drivers to stay fit and achieve a dynamic competitive advantage:

• Designing business models, goods, services, and experiences that prioritize the demands of all stakeholders, not just shareholders.
• Driving innovation at scale: investigating breakthroughs at the front end of disruption and cultivating a fail-fast culture that encourages creativity.
• Deploying technology quickly: establishing a comprehensive digital transformation strategy to keep up with technological breakthroughs and stay ahead of potential disruptions.

These characteristics will identify companies that are adaptive and future-ready. They will be more agile and adaptable to changes in client needs, technological improvements, and disruptive competition than those who rely solely on size and efficiency.

2. Prepare for several possible futures.

How can businesses know they have what it takes to be future-ready if they don’t know what the future looks like?

Unlike plants and animals, people and businesses may utilize scenario planning to explore potential futures and steer transformation. Most scenario planning takes an intellectual and data-driven approach, such as the stress testing mandated by banks. This technique is useful in many circumstances, such as preparing for financial downturns, but it may be too restricted to help businesses prepare for a wide range of long-term disturbances.

We advocate for a “future view,” which mixes science and art. Companies may not be able to foretell the future, but knowing what is feasible, reasonable, and probable can help them design a better future.

This approach allows a corporation to identify potential disruptions in the future and what they will mean for the organization. This insight enables businesses to strategically plan for their preferred future at the intersection of several conceivable future scenarios, guiding investment and adaptation (transformation) accordingly.

Disruption poses a serious danger to all businesses, but it also presents an excellent opportunity. Companies that grasp what is possible in the future can take advantage of disruption by developing a continuous transformation strategy that balances transformation projects across three horizons: now, next, and beyond. Companies that manage transformation in this manner can lay a basis for future growth, enable new value propositions, and explore totally new enterprises or “game changers” in the future.

3. Avoid making frequent mistakes.

Many internal and external elements influence a company’s long-term existence. We can observe that “intergenerational” survival is more likely when businesses adapt to the market swiftly and avoid three frequent traps that might lead to inability or unwillingness to adapt.

• Abandon legacy mindsets: Many businesses adhere to legacy mindsets, basing their assumptions about the industry and its future on what has worked previously. To address this, businesses can foster a human-centered culture based on a common purpose and vision, encouraging innovation and a fail-fast strategy. This mindset adjustment is challenging for huge corporations, but those that have made the transition can adapt far faster than competitors who cling to the past.
• Create symbolic ties with a network of partners: Many firms that stick to traditional ways of working have an individualistic mindset and view success as a zero-sum game. In today’s interconnected world, businesses must approach competition in new ways. Companies can consciously embrace this strategy by collaborating with competitors, universities, and startups to gain a competitive advantage. The nature of competition has altered, and corporate executives must accept this new reality.
• Know that it can happen to you: In 2013, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop famously concluded a speech by remarking, “We didn’t do anything wrong, but somehow, we lost.” Nokia recognized market trends and potential disruptions, but did not adjust its behavior or approach to avert them. Willingness to change, even when things appear to be going well, can help businesses reinvent themselves on a continuous basis as the landscape evolves.

Many additional internal and external factors can hinder a company’s ability to adapt, but these examples can serve as a quick guide for leaders looking to avoid the same mistakes that have brought previous businesses to their demise.

No sector or corporation is safe from disruption. Businesses may learn from nature’s vast collection of innovations to become more adaptive and understand how to survive and prosper in the face of increasing upheaval and uncertainty.