The Hindu Business Line : Shake the bad gene off

EVOLUTION is a fundamental force of nature, yielding species in the bargain. That is how we came from monkeys, said Darwin. Now, Seth Godin, writes in his book Survival is not Enough that we can evolve our companies the same way, by eliminating "the anti-change reflex that's genetically coded into all of us". More tips about the new evolution follow:

If we try to control something that is out of our control, we're going to fail. The failure is going to lead to frenzy, to stress and ultimately, to the demise of our organisation. Organisations and individuals can put the proven organic technique of evolution to use by permitting change to occur, not fighting it.

The penguin continues to evolve and your company tries desperately not to. Your organisation, unlike the penguin, is built on the fiction that someone is in charge, that the world is stable, that you get to choose what happens next.

Evolution works because the tireless efforts of trillions of entities will always defeat central planning... As long as there are entrepreneurs willing to take risks, sources of capital willing to fund them and employees willing to give it a try, there will always be chaos in the markets.

Smart companies realise that big successes are often the result of luck, and that there may be a long time until the next one.

Competence is the enemy of change. Competent people resist change. Why? Because a new winning strategy threatens to make them less competent. And competent people like being competent. That's who they are, and sometimes that's all they've got.

Focusing on an effort does not mean your company can't focus on a competing effort as well. That, in fact, is the difference between companies and individuals. A company can focus on two things at once.

So, without waiting any further, evolve.

Through Henry's glasses

WHAT should be the US's diplomacy for the 21st century? Henry Kissinger gives his prescription in Does America Need a Foreign Policy? — where the author "sweeps down the cobwebbed corridors of international diplomacy to deliver a thunderous knock at President George W. Bush's front door", according to the Sunday Times. More:

An alliance comes into being when a group of nations decides to defend a specified territory or a particular cause; it in effect draws a line, the violation of which constitutes a casus belli. By contrast, a system of collective security defines neither the territory to be defended nor the means or machinery for doing so; it is essentially a judicial concept. NATO is an alliance; the UN is a collective security system.

According to estimates by British Aerospace, by 2010, the military expenditures of Asian nations will exceed those of Western Europe and reach a level two-thirds of that of the US.

India and Pakistan are testing nuclear weapons because, living as they do in a tough neighbourhood, they will not risk their survival on exhortations coming from countries basing their own security on nuclear weapons.

Africa — the continent is a tragedy; it is also a challenge. Africa's variety inhibits concerted action... Without the moral commitment of the American people and of the international community, Africa's tragedy will turn into the festering disaster of our age.

Globalisation has become synonymous with growth; growth requires capital; and capital seeks the highest possible return with the lowest risk, gravitating to where there is the best trade-off between risk and return. In practice, this means that, in one form or another, the US and the other advanced industrialised countries will absorb an overwhelming percentage of the world's available investment capital.

Take a world tour with Henry.

Read this `simbly'

KERALA was born when Parasurama threw his battleaxe to carve out the territory, mythology says. Called `god's own country', the State is among the top tourist destinations in the world. And the book Where the Rain is Born, edited by Anita Nair, is an anthology of writings about Kerala. A sampler:

The entire village was a conglomeration of little islands, for the members of each caste lived in their own particular space, performed their own prescribed duties and reaped the fruit of their own actions. No one desired a reward greater than calmness of mind. (The village before time, V. K. Madhavan Kutty)

The moneylenders came out to the seashore, their pockets bulging. Everybody was in need of money. The fishermen agreed to any terms... The seafront soon reflected the affluence of borrowed money. (Chemmeen, Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai)

The girls were clearly unhappy about their lack of swaathanthriam (freedom). They were irked by the fact that `boys have more adhikaaram (authority) and more avakaasham (rights). (Fool's Paradise, Ammu Joseph)

`A bad mistake, Abie,' old Moshe Cohen commented. `To make an enemy of your mother; for enemies are plentiful, but mothers are hard to find.' (The Moor's Last Sigh, Salman Rushdie)

`Die-vorced?' His voice rose to such a high register that it cracked on the question mark. He even pronounced the word as though it were a form of death. (God's Own Country, Arundhati Roy)

Should cost you less than a ticket to Thiruvananthapuram.

(Books courtesy: Fountainhead, Chennai. E-mail: fhbooks@satyam.net.in)

Tailpiece

"What happens when you cross a car and a bike?"

"A pedal car or a carike?"

"No, a serious accident!"

hindubusinessline@hotmail.com

D. Murali

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Shake the bad gene off