This endeavor, inherently complex and nondeterministic, belies traditional notions of control . We should distrust any elaborately planned, centrally developed, and carefully deployed business system or process. In nature, reproduction, combined with imperfection and mutation, evolves new and existing species inevitably selected as appropriate in a changing environment. In business, a company's agility, fitness, and performance dictates whether markets will select it for survival in an ever-changing business climate. Standard Building Blocks There are other parallels between nature, business, and computing.
Many different organisms emerge from similar basic organic materials and structures.
In various organisms, nature reuses standards and common design patterns and frameworks within radically different implementations, from cell structure to circulatory systems. Organizations do the same thing, from general ledger to sales management, and the computer world reuses standard technology building blocks, from IP to XML to SOAP to RosettaNet, in radically different solutions. Dominant species, monopolies, and platforms naturally happen, but they're always at risk. Monopolies and dominant brands regularly arise, but also commonly deteriorate through factors such as bureaucracy, hubris, and complacency. Dominant computing platforms naturally emerge, but ultimately diminish due to factors such as commoditization of function, stagnation, and the influence of technology-inflection points.