What businesses can learn from nature? Book by Keralite consultant & US soldier explores unknown ideas

Kochi: Be it an aircraft or a bullet train that epitomises humankind’s penchant for speed and progress or a roll of your humble Velcro that comes in handy on several day-to-day occasions, there have been many inventions that were inspired by the wonders of nature.

While the wings of a bird prompted the man to fly, it is the beak of a kingfisher that became the model of Japan’s Shinkansen bullet train. Hook-and-loop fasteners, popularly known as Velcro, were invented by Swiss electrical engineer George de Mestral after he was inspired by the way burrs stick to animal fur.

Call it bioinspiration, biomimetics or biomimicry – nature keeps inspiring inventions and innovation. Then why not businesses? This was a question that perplexed two men who hail from distant lands and backgrounds but were joined by shared academic interests. Their efforts to find an answer to the question have resulted in an intriguing book which was quick to find a place in management enthusiasts’ reading lists.

“Bioinspired Strategic Design: Nature-Inspired Principles for Dynamic Business Environments,” co-authored by Daniel J Finkenstadt and Tojin T Eapen, attempts to provide organisations with the tools they need to understand the design of living systems and use those lessons to improve their ability to respond to uncertainty in dynamic and challenging environments.

A native of Thiruvalla in Kerala, Tojin is an accomplished academic and business consultant, while his co-author, Finkenstadt, is a professional military officer who has served as an assistant professor in the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) ‘s Department of Defense Management.

Eapen said his collaboration with Finkenstadt was easy because they shared an interest in nature. “What helps is usually you have a complementary style. For example, I am more of a person who looks at the big, broader perspective, like patterns, and he’s very good at specific detailing. So it was very easy for us to collaborate,” Eapen told Onmanorama in Kochi. He was in the city for the launch of his book.

The founder of the Center for Creative Foresight, Eapen’s research interests include bioinspired design, augmented creativity, scenario planning, idea management, and sustainable innovation.

He has taught at the Trulaske College of Business at the University of Missouri and UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. He has also taught as a guest faculty member at the Global Leadership Program of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.

He was also a consultant with over 40 organisations, including Google, Samsung, ABB, KBR, Robert Bosch, NetApp, Qualcomm, Bureau Veritas, SKF, and Newell Brands, providing training and strategic guidance on innovation.

Giving insights into the ideas discussed in the book, Eapen said that during the writing research, he and his co-author could find situations and patterns that are common in nature and business environments. “Everyone knows how a gecko drops its tail to escape an adverse situation. That is one of the most interesting business strategies that I encountered in my life,” he said.

Stressing the applicability of the book, the author stated that by studying the adaptations and mechanisms found in living systems, people can gain novel and feasible ideas for addressing the complex challenges faced by businesses, governments, markets, cities, and society. The book aims to guide how to apply bioinspired principles to systematically generate creative ideas to solve complex problems, drawing on examples from various fields and disciplines.

The book examines different efficiency and resilience mechanisms observed in living organisms and organisations and highlights the relationship between the two factors and how they can be applied to achieve similar goals in organisations.

Specific strategies observed in nature, including camouflage, apparent death, and distraction, are discussed in the book in the context of predator avoidance and prominence balancing. The book also draws analogies between target observers in nature and business environments, considering competitors, customers, business partners, investors, regulators, and the government.

The book has been reviewed and endorsed by leading business leaders and scholars from Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth, UNC-Chapel Hill, Oxford and Cambridge. Recently, the book achieved the #1 spot on Amazon.com’s Best Seller list in both the Business Management and Business Entrepreneurship categories. It is also ranked as the #1 New Release for Strategy and Competition on Amazon (July 2024).