Seeing the whole picture

An article from a September issue of 'The Economist' caught my eye. The article makes the connection between the near-extinction of Indian vultures in the mid-1990s and the rise in mortality rate by 4% in districts once populated by birds. The diagram (that was part of the article) should be self-explanatory.

To summarize:

Historically, vultures were widespread in India. But between the 1990s and early 2000s their numbers plummeted by more than 90%, from around 40m. The cause was diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory drug that farmers began using to treat their cattle. Despite it being harmless to both cows and humans, birds that consumed animals treated with diclofenac suffered from kidney failure and died within weeks. Without vultures, carcasses attracted feral dogs and rats. Not only do these animals carry rabies and other diseases that threaten humans, they are far less efficient at finishing off carrion. The rotting remains they left behind were full of pathogens that then spread to drinking water. The abrupt demise of the vultures made it possible to quantify their impact on public health.Things are more interconnected than we think. Without understanding the whole picture one can't make the connection between the increase in the sale of an anti-inflammatory drug for cattle and the increase in the mortality rate. But once you start seeing the whole picture, including the missing pieces and the interconnections between them, it will all make sense.

Strategy sessions (biz/product/marketing/GTM etc) will greatly benefit from this kind of 'system' thinking to arrive at non-siloed/wholistic solutions.

P.S. - Interesting titbit:

When I was in grad school the Father of System Dynamics, Jay Forrester (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Wright_Forrester), gave a guest lecture to us. At that time he was in his 90s. But his enthusiasm for the subject was contagious.

This was his quote in that session:

Your reputation is a 'stock', the good and bad things you do are 'flows'.