![]() ![]() This paper strives to address the garbled strategic advice created by misinterpretations of evolutionary theory, which have led to incorrect assessments about markets and market participants. These are in fact unjustified notions used to justify strategies that can do more harm than good, especially as the Age of Disruption increases the pace of change in the marketplace. If truth be told, marketplace competition doesn’t ensure that only the strongest survive any more than evolutionary pressures force anyone to be selfish. Unfortunately, when used to illuminate business strategy, many evolutionary concepts are misapplied. Simply put, evolutionary theory describes processes of change over time and relevant concepts can indeed help explain dynamic business situations-especially the evolution of markets-but only if properly applied. But while evolutionary notions about business often lack direct grounding in Darwin’s work, past thinkers (Henderson, 1989) have clearly shown evolution has much to teach businesspeople. ![]() Or so our thinking often goes.”īiological and business evolution differ in important aspects, e.g., the role of genes. The business world is a jungle, a harsh environment in which only the strong can adapt and survive. These failed businesses were weak: according to the law of ‘survival of the fittest,’ they had been selected out. As University of Exeter business lecturer Morgen Witzel noted in 2010: “When, during the recent crisis, many companies failed, it was easy for us to explain this in Darwinian terms. Evolutionary logic, for example, was quickly deployed to explain why so many companies failed. The influence of evolutionary thinking on business can clearly be seen in how market watchers explained fallout from the 2008/2009 global financial crisis. For example, business leaders are constantly being told to keep their firms strong and aggressively in control of the competition because the marketplace is a selfish “dog-eat-dog” world. As a result, corporate managers frequently receive advice heavily steeped in evolutionary metaphors. Few individuals have had a greater impact on society than Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution has long influenced how we think about numerous aspects of our lives, including the way we do business. ![]()
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