The Nature of Business: Guest Blogger Giles Hutchins

        I am privileged to have Giles Hutchins, the author of The Nature of Business and the director of UK consulting firm Biomimicry for Creative Innovation, as my guest blogger today! Giles has over 15 years of business transformation experience and is working on a BBC/Open University documentary about the ways nature can inspire businesses to become more sustainable and resilient. He regularly lectures at conferences and business schools, and blogs at www.thenatureofbusiness.org. For more information about Giles' excellent and highly acclaimed book, please view his two minute video clip.

Building A Bridge Between Business and Nature

        The ecological, social and economic crisis now upon us is as much a crisis of spirit as it is a crisis of resources. Indeed, part of the crisis of spirit is because modern society and industry tends to perceive the Earth as a set of resources, and values it as such. What scope is there for this paradigm to change in order to perceive the Earth as an animate, living system in which humans play a constructive, not destructive, part? In order to live differently... we must think differently, and this relates to the way that we see ourselves in the world.

        Just as our need to transform business is now becoming apparent, so is our need to transform our engagement with and response to nature.  In fact, our sensing and responding to nature holds much learning to help business transform. Understanding the patterns and principles of nature can provide insight into how best to future-proof business for the unpredictability ahead.

        All organizations operate within a community – an environment of interconnections – likewise so too do the people within organizations. The age-old adage ‘no man is an island’ is the same for an organization. In fact, just like an ecosystem in nature, the more diverse the relationships and resources an organisation makes use of, the more resilient it becomes.

        Organizations of the future are: collaborative, innovative, networking, emergent, dynamic organisations, more akin to living organisms. There are a plethora of nature’s insights that can be applied to business – all that is lacking is the ability to convert these insights into a business frame, for example:

• Mycelium networks provide insight for a responsive and adaptive organization 
• Nature (and business) is emergent and interconnected, not predictable and linear
• Nature does not do waste.  Waste of one is food for another.
• Natural ecosystems develop niches where each aspect of the material throughput is used.

        A business inspired by Nature is one that is resilient, optimizing, adaptive, systems-based, values-led, and life supporting -  these are ‘nature’s business principles’. These principles do not seek to reduce organizational behavior to biology, rather, they suggest a set of behaviors and qualities that simply echo the law of the system – Earth – upon which our lives and our businesses depend. They recognize the complexity of human nature and nurture, and are neither a model nor a theory, but rather a philosophy that reminds us that while humans are a special species on Earth0, we are still part of nature and subject to its law. If we do not conduct our business within the constraints of the system, we will inevitably go out of business.

        The circular economy, industrial ecology, cradle-to-cradle, the learning organization and biomimicry all share a common foundation: they take inspiration from nature.  Nature has been dealing with dynamic change and complexity for over 3.8bn years, and the more we re-connect with nature, the more we open ourselves up to the wisdom that lies all around us.

        What is desperately lacking in today’s framing of sustainable business, and for that matter wider business transformation, is a language and engagement approach for business people to unlock nature’s wisdom and in so doing re-enchanting ourselves with nature - re-establishing our vital bond with our environment.

        By framing experiences people have with nature, nurturing them with examples of business inspired by nature, seeding ideas of new ways of operating, we can catalyze the re-connection across the currently broken bridge of business and nature. The re-building of a bridge between business and nature calls on skills and expertise from multi-disciplines: biology, eco-psychology and business change, for instance. This fusion of skillsets, with the right vision and mission, can help equip local, national and global business people with the wherewithal they need to adapt, innovate, embrace change and engage in meaningful business transformation towards a sustainable future.