Evolve or die: A Beautiful Story

Take a look at the colour of lions.

They blend in with their surroundings, ambush their prey, and pounce on their target once they’re close enough.

Their color blends well with that of the dry grass around them.

It is said, ‘lions evolved to be a yellowish color.’

It may seem like lions as a species had a choice of color and they chose the right color.

This is obviously not true.

What actually happened is, through genetic mutations, some early lions would have had grass-like color patches on their skin.

Genetic mutations happen all the time in every species.

These lions, because of their ability to camouflage and hunt better, would be more successful in hunting.

Therefore, they’d be healthier.

Because they’d be healthier, they’d mate more often and therefore have more cubs.

Eventually, from among the cubs, the ones who were even more grass-like in color would continue to survive and pass on their genes while the ones with a less favourable color would eventually die of hunger.

Over multiple generations, all the lions that survive would be of a grass-like color.

So it isn’t necessarily the lion that was the strongest that survived. It is that the lion that fit his surroundings the best that survived.

Survival of the fittest. Those who fit their environment the best, survive.

If tomorrow, all the grass around the lions turned brown or black-ish, over hundreds of years, you’ll find that the lions evolve to become browner or black-ish.

The shark we see today has barely evolved over millions of years.

That’s because their environment has remained more or less the same through millions of years.

Individuals die fast. Species survive for much longer. And every species aims to survive for as long as possible.

This analogy can be drawn down to businesses very comfortably.

Over the course of a few decades, almost all of the people working in any company would be gone and new ones would join.

So in effect, the company is comprised of almost fully new people - but the company remains the same.

This is because the company isn’t just the people who work there. It is how those people interact with each other.

These interactions can be anything from the rules governing the company to the culture in a company.

A company or business is somewhat like a species. Individuals come and go. The species remains for much longer.

Animals do go extinct. Entire species get wiped out.

Animals have been going extinct when they failed to adapt to changing environments.

Likewise, the environment of companies changes with time.

Granted, the change in the case of species happens over thousands of years while the change in the case of companies can happen in merely a couple of years.

But the analogy still holds.

Sabre tooth cats - animals similar to lions but much larger went extinct around 10,000 years ago when a few other large animals they hunted went extinct due to climate change. They didn’t like hunting smaller animals.

There’s one difference between the lions and the company.

The lions don’t have much choice about what changes happen to them as a species.

In a company, people have a choice as to how they evolve with changing times.

The Tata Group, as a company is alive today and thriving over 150 years after it was founded.

It started off as a trading company. At one point, its main business was textiles.

In the early 1900s, it started a steel company, hotel company, and airline.

Somewhere in the middle of the 1900s, Tata Motors was established. They started with making not trucks or cars but train engines.

Towards the end of the 1900s, there were so many companies under Tata, it was hard to keep track. They made everything from trucks to salt.

How does Tata make the most money today?

This 150-year-old company makes the most money out of something absolutely new age.

Software.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is the biggest money earner for Tata right now.

Over a 150 year period, the lion that Tata is today has changed color many times to fit with the times - to fit with the changing color of grass around it.

There are several others that perished in between - they failed to evolve.

Are you noticing how the Reliance Group is evolving right now?

They’re reducing their dependence on oil. They’re investing massively and are already very big in the communications space (Jio) and retail space (Reliance Retail).

State?Bank?of?India?is even older than Tata. Over 200 years old.

It was a?bank?back then. It is a?bank?today. It operates in an environment where things haven’t changed much.

The grass for them has remained more or less the same color. More like how the shark hasn’t needed to evolve so far.

And the concept of a species evolving with changing environments doesn’t apply only to companies.

PS:

I got this Story on Groww Digest. Haven't taken permission to Post Here But I Hope They Don't mind sharing with you guys.