Biomimetic file 186: Tubular Micro-motors

How to manage uncontrollable business processes

Control*: the power to influence or direct people’s behaviour or the course of events.

Highlight:“Recently, a new generation of tubular micro-motors was invented by harnessing motile spermatozoa as propulsion force for rolled-up micro-tubes (Spermbots)…motile bovine spermatozoa are trapped inside 50-μm-long micro-tubes that have a diameter that is slightly larger than the head of the sperm cell…The flagellum serves as driving force that propels the micro-tube forward…Since the micro-tube consists of iron nano-membranes, it can be steered externally by magnetic fields…”

Insight:?The organized processes that surround uncontrollable randomness in the reproductive cycle are an inspirational business philosophy:

As in life processes, there are areas of businesses operations which are controllable* and others which are simply not. Indeed, there is a difference between complex and chaotic in that the latest is uncontrollable. Some typical uncontrollable aspects affecting businesses would include the global economy fluctuations, weather related events, strikes, road traffic, various accidents, natural hazards, terrorism…

Yet being uncontrollable in itself does not mean that it cannot be managed. The only way to manage the uncontrollable is to accept in the first place the fact that certain things are simply beyond influence. Businesses which ignore uncontrollable parameters without adequate planning integration put themselves in danger because these aspects are associated with significantly greater risks…

By accepting this very fact, a business can more effectively focus on other controllable aspects but also work towards building risk management procedures surrounding the uncontrollable. In other words the trick is to treat the uncontrollable as a risk in order to apply risk management procedures that are to be incorporated in an overall management strategy.

It sounds simple but it is actually quite tricky and many corporations simply haven’t gained a clear map of where their uncontrollable aspects are. Do you have control?

What is Biomimetics:?the field of gaining inspiration from nature first to solve some of our most difficult challenges. Instead of coming up with our own solutions to a problematic, the odds are that species or natural systems on the planet already offer?an ultimate solution. This simple fact is also another strong case to preserve species at all cost as the intellectual heritage contained within or through the study of species is both irreplaceable and invaluable…