Developing animal instincts for business survival

A better understanding of animal survival instincts could improve a company’s chances of business survival according to a new study by Cranfield School of Management. The research explores what business leaders preparing for hard times can learn from solutions that have evolved in the animal kingdom over billions of years.

Dr Tazeeb Rajwani, Lecturer in Strategic Management at Cranfield is one of the report’s co-authors. He commented: “It is too easy to blame market turbulence or unexpected events for a company’s poor performance but this is often the response of managers to circumstances beyond their control. As a consequence, businesses fail to develop strategies for coping with crisis. Animals thrive in environments that are much more deadly than the marketplaces that businesses operate in, so are ideal subjects to learn from. Our research identified four basic coping capabilities and survival strategies that businesses can develop to survive and thrive in unpredictable environments.”

The four survival strategies explored in the study were:

Bear strategy – embracing hibernation capabilities: displaying a superior capacity to conserve energy or costs is chosen by businesses in the tourist and farming industries whose services will have varying demand throughout the year. During the high season, all their resources are used, with the knowledge that seasonality will cause a slump in demand for the rest of the year. Understanding how you accumulate your resources, and slow energy usage before getting hit by a crisis, is crucial to surviving.

Lion strategy - building a fighting capability: putting up a fight is the strategy of choice for aggressive companies, specifically in hostile environments that threaten to erode their competitive advantage. They react quickly and can stage vicious attacks if challenged for resources or territory. Organisations in hostile environments that follow lion strategies take a proactive role in going after the weaknesses in competitors and may adopt direct and forceful approaches in doing so. However, these companies can also lose their battles depending on the territory.

Seagull strategy - structuring flight capabilities: moving quickly away from hostile environments to avoid specific threats to survival is another strategy adopted by companies that train hard to become highly tolerant of changes in the business environment. Similar to seagulls, such companies are agile enough to fly away to escape danger and thrive in many different environments such as moving the business unit to another country during a crisis. However, following this strategy requires making hard choices.

Shark strategy – developing search capabilities: continuously looking for opportunities and threats and at the same time developing stamina, is an approach followed by companies that seek predator’s rewards. Like sharks, companies in hard times can develop instincts about when and how to attack to reclaim territory and search hard for new customers. They can also use their strength and force to fight off competitors.

‘Do you have a survival instinct? Leveraging genetic codes to achieve fit in hostile business environments’ by Dr Tazeeb Rajwani and Professor Patrick Reinmoeller from Cranfield School of Management and Professor Thomas Lawton from EMLYON Business School will be published in Business Horizons (55, 1, 2012).

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Notes to editors

Cranfield School of Management is one of Europe’s leading university management schools renowned for its strong links with industry and business. It is committed to providing practical management solutions through a range of activities including postgraduate degree programmes, management development, research and consultancy.   www.som.cranfield.ac.uk

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