Business lessons from the world of Science

As a mathematician at heart, I often find myself realising that I think and work differently than non-scientists. There are many ways of thinking and working that have been helpful in the world of science, that are helpful in the world of business, that I take for granted as a scientist ... but that many non-scientists aren't familiar with and don't understand the benefits of. I just finished reading a couple of Stephen Hawking books on his work and the universe, which made me think about this again. Aside from inspiring beauty and wonder the following business lessons also stood out to me:

• “Ever since the dawn of civilisation, people have not been content to see events as unconnected and inexplicable. They have craved an understanding of the underlying order in the world.” I believe businesses should strive to describe that underlying order, also. This could be via a great Audience Segmentation or via a forecasting algorithm that describes customer behaviour. But businesses often accept merely reporting (measuring observations) rather than understanding why they happen
• “The whole history of science has been the gradual realisation that events do not happen in an arbitrary manner, but that they reflect a certain underlying order”. This is true in the corporate world. If you’re surprised by trends then you haven’t built a good enough understanding of the underlying order of things. Again, a great Audience Segmentation will mean you get ahead of trends, rather than being surprised by them
• ‘It’s hard to develop a theory that describes everything all in one go. Break a problem down into bits and develop partial theories’. I’ve seen many businesses strive for the business equivalent of a complete unified theory and fail to celebrate (or even dismiss) the small wins of partial theories that are more likely to get you to the ultimate goal
• “The light we see from distant galaxies left them millions of years ago,” just as industry trends and many of the metrics businesses measure are products of the past, rather than pre-cursors of the future
• “In less than half a century, man’s view of the universe, formed over millennia has transformed.” We are in a period where our understanding of the world needs to change rapidly. Get really, really good at being wrong / changing your mind. Celebrate being wrong as a sign of learning. Encourage it in your teams
• "Never be afraid to come p with an idea or hypothesis no matter how daft it is". This is obvious to a scientist, but not to a non-scientist, who often doesn't feel comfortable being wrong in front of colleagues. Einstein revolutionised our understanding of space and time precisely by being not afraid to pursue ideas that seem crazy to others. He was also wrong on some pretty fundamental points (God DOES in fact play dice. He's quite a gambler!), and that's ok
• “Religion was an early attempt to answer the questions we all ask ... but science now answers them better and more consistently.” Many businesses still rely on wise sages and don’t invest enough in understanding the underlying order of things