As you know, Mother Nature has always been nurturing and sustaining. But have you wondered how nature can inspire some of the best lessons in business not found in any reference books? You will be surprised to find some formidable lessons that can be imbibed, that every corporate culture can adapt to. When you come across success stories of several leading business houses and their heads, you will understand that many of their qualities, directly or indirectly, are inspired by nature.
Business houses are like natural ecosystems. There needs to be some kind of pattern and designated path to follow. Nature has its own way of dealing with things, and it beautifully goes on without anybody’s intervention. This happens because a default natural system is in play, and the functioning happens perfectly in tandem with the outcomes.
Business lessons from nature
- Patience and perseverance
Lesson: Any plant will take several weeks to grow from a seed to a sapling and plant, and thereon, over the years, it will begin to grow into a tree. Similarly, a business needs to grow steadily with patience and perseverance by putting in the right amount of hard work to become a big organization.
- Resilience and flexibility
Lesson: In the event of storms, wind, and rain, like the mountains, stay tall and face the trouble and challenges that come their way. This is how business leaders should be while bending with the wind like the tall grass, but staying put on the ground is what you need to be when heading an organization.
- Maintaining equilibrium
Lesson: Nature knows how to bring about a balance even if there is an upset and sets things right when they go wrong. Those leading the organization must maintain a semblance during downfalls and peaks. This enables the employees to keep faith in their leaders and keep working.
- Living in Harmony
Lesson: Nature lives in harmony with living and non-living things, forming an integral part of the ecosystem. This coexisting attitude must exist in the organization to have perfect streamlining and seamless communication for proper functioning.
- Everything goes back to the beginning.
Lesson: Everything we do from birth to death and nature are cyclical. A seed grows into a tree, dies, and its seeds become more trees. As business leaders, when we lead the organization from the time of joining till, we leave it behind; we must ensure a continuum of growth exists.
- Being humble
The vastness of the ocean and the immense mountain peaks make us feel like specks in the cosmos. This feeling of humility should be learnt from nature. Hence, as a leader, heading an organization can overwhelm your ability to see beyond, which needs to stop and having perspective to grow and learn every day can help you sustain in the corporate world.
- Understanding the benefits
Lesson: Every creature will try to find the best means to survive, picking the best fruit to eat, and any plant finding the right place to grow. In the business environment, working with market changes and cut-throat competition and diligently learning to find the best ways to garner customer loyalty is what we must strive for, just like nature does.
- Adapt to change
Lesson: Animals and plants adapt to prevalent conditions. The cactus has worked out a mechanism without leaves to survive desert-like conditions. The penguins have extra layers of fat to survive harsh cold weather. Similarly, as situations change, organizations should be open to new technologies and innovations in order to stay relevant.
- Surviving competition
Lesson: Several businesses like yours will come and go. At the same time, you have to work on surviving the onslaught of market changes and technological advancements, customer tastes etc., without picking on the change, surviving the competition becomes difficult as you need to work against so many forces to retain your position.
- Building a community ecosystem
Lesson: As nature takes help from each other to survive and thrive, the bees help the flowers pollinate, and the birds and wind carry the tree’s seeds. Building a community to make an efficient network, building better brand relationships, and creating customer partners will help your organization grow.
Nature has a lot to teach us, only if we sit back and pay attention to what is around us. Business lessons may relate to nature’s way of functioning. However, the very nature of a leader is dependent on how to make the business function. So, keep learning to adapt to the uniqueness of what nature has to offer.