DARWANian model of evolution has been more of a philosophical and church centric debate rather than that of scientific merit.. again politics of religion.. evolution is the most fantastic concept availble for human thinking.. everything evolves to a pattern .. those who dont evolve die as furthered in survival of the fittest theory.. what about organizations.. there is a constant evolution happening within the structures evolve and so its strategy.. people.. resources..
i want to hear your views first on theory of evolution w.r.t organizations..
i will then post my underlying view
The Darwanian theory of evolution not only talks about the survival of the fittest but also talks about how the fittest slowly evolves to adapt to the changing environment. The speed with which a organism can adapt to change in the environment can be compared to the flexibility of organizations to change according to the need of the day. Organizations have evolved form the strong mechanical and less flexible to the highly flexible ones. The cross functional teams of the organizations are a good example of their flexibility. In the age of hyper competition organizations are evolving on the concept of "Live and Let Live" rather than only the fittest one to survive.
ReplyDeleteCharles Darwin's Quote:
ReplyDelete"In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment."
Being an Amateur in the world of blogging, in my first & latest blog(visit: http://nayaksworld.blogspot.com ) had mentioned about Sunil Mittal's fear factor when Reliance was launching CDMA in India. Fear was among all the Telecom Operators of that period, that Reliance might swipe out their customer base. Sunil & his core team spent one month in a kind of hideout, just to plan for survival. Their strategy came out as "Plan to cover smaller cities/towns across the country" when Reliance would be launching only in major cities(restricted to one city & less advantage of roaming) being CDMA technology. Delay in launch, low cost mobiles/tariffs, poor billing process and defaulters, took Reliance for a costly ride and slowed down its speed. By then, Airtel took major portion of the cake & still leading.
I feel, if not for Reliance's move it would have taken more time for not only Airtel but also other operators to think on building their network in rural areas.
Just some thoughts.
ReplyDeleteDarwinism depends on two main theories.
1) Continues evolution of an organism to the changes in the sorrounding environment.
2) Survival of the fittest during conpetion for food and reproduction.
Now let's come to the parameter "size" of a company.
Dinosaurs were the most fittest through out triassic period. They dominated the food chain and grew in numbers. What happened to them when a asteroid struck. They were extinct with in 100 years.
Now let's check our giants GM, Ford, AIG, MerrylLynch, Comerzbank, Societe General. Each one gigantic in size. One crisis is enough to bring them down.
Our economic theories talk about economy of scale, Monopoly, oligopoly, etc. But economics has so far not modelled the optimal size of an organisation(Organism) for a demand size(Environment). I will ask this question to my economics prof.
A company is fit to survive or not is determined during the period of bust and not in period of boom. That may be the reason why startups comming up during recession have shown longer survival periods that the once that came up in boom periods. ... Or is it only hypothesis?.
Hi Very interesting and though provoking article. I fully agree with your views about Darwin's theory of species evolution.
ReplyDelete