Outwitting the Competition — Lessons in Strategy from the Human Immunodeficiency Virus
By: Damola Oladosu
Tags: Virus, Disruption, Business Strategy

Image by Upklyak at freepik.com

Introduction

Humans are capable of complex computations, which makes us the most intelligent species on the planet. But are we really?

As recently witnessed by the COVID-19 pandemic, viruses display an innate ability to outwit their super intelligent host and competitor, causing widespread disruption and shutting down the human body, health systems and the entire world economy.

The famous scientist and father of Microbiology, Louis Pasteur once said “Messieurs, c’est les microbes qui auront le dernier mot”, which means “Gentlemen, it is the microbes who will have the last word.”

If Louis Pasteur, the father of Microbiology, is right, then perhaps there are few strategic lessons that humans and businesses can learn from micro-organisms like viruses as we prepare for a radically different competitive landscape, post-COVID-19.

Like COVID-19, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) significantly impacted lives and business at the peak of its epidemic and remains a relevant global public health threat. I also spent almost 4 years of my life studying this virus. In this article, I would be exploring the HIV life cycle and highlighting strategy lessons that businesses could learn from viruses, on outwitting the competition.

The HIV Life Cycle

The HIV life cycle is broken down into 7 main steps — attachment, fusion, reverse transcription, integration, replication, assembly and budding. If you don’t have a biology background, don’t fret, I’ll try to minimize the technical terms and explain those I use.

For the purpose of this article, I’ll focus on the first 5 steps, and draw parallel strategies that businesses can adapt to compete successfully. Each of these steps and corresponding strategies is described briefly below:

Step 1 and 2: Attachment and Fusion

What does HIV do: Before infection can occur, the virus has to enter the host (human) cell (obviously). This process begins by HIV binding to specific categories of white blood cells (think of these as warrior cells that help the body fight off infections). The virus attaches its own proteins to host proteins. Subsequently, the virus merges itself with the host cell, allowing it to enter the host cell. This process requires some structural changes to the virus and host proteins.

What can Businesses learn from this? HIV targets specific categories of cells that the body has designed as a defense mechanism and uses its proteins to gain entry into the cell. For businesses, there are two key lessons: First, businesses need to know and understand their target market. Not just in a broad sense, but with very specific ideas and data on what niche they want to play in, what services they want to be known for, and who they want to provide those services to. Your customer can’t be “everybody”.

Second, businesses can leverage their competitors’ unique strengths and use it to their advantage. It’s important to be patient, understand the competition’s structures and be ready to adapt some of your systems to take advantage of their strengths and blind spot.

Step 3: Reverse Transcription

What does HIV do: After the virus enters the host cell, it prepares to produce more copies of itself. For this to happen, it undergoes an intermediary step. In this step, the virus changes the “nature” of its genetic material — single stranded RNA (Ribonuclease Acid — contains all the necessary information for viral life function) to match the “nature” of the host’s genetic material — double stranded DNA (Deoxyribonuclease Acid, still contains all the necessary information for viral life function).

What can Businesses learn from this? The importance of this process of adaptation by the virus cannot be overstated. HIV recognizes that in order to take advantage of the host cell for long-term survival, it needs to completely transform its genetic material. Similarly, businesses need to understand the importance of adaptability and transformation for long-term sustainability, especially as the business environment changes. Note how the virus transforms but maintains all the necessary components for its survival. More on that later.

Step 4 and 5: Integration and Replication

What does HIV do: Following reverse transcription (a.k.a genetic material transformation), the virus inserts (integrates) its newly formed DNA into host DNA. This integration is a stable and irreversible process. The process of integration allows the virus to hijack the host’s replication machinery to produce new copies of itself. To put this simply, each time the host cell replicates itself for survival, it produces new HIV cells. (This is kind of cool, right?).

Alternatively, after integration, HIV can establish latent reservoirs (cells that are infected with HIV but not actively producing HIV). During latency, the virus replicates at very low levels, patients do not display any symptoms and the virus can be undetectable in some patients.

What can Businesses learn from this? Rather than trying to “reinvent the wheel” and produce its own replication machinery in the host, HIV uses the host’s systems, seamlessly integrating itself into natural host behaviors. Similarly, when designing new products or business models, it is important that businesses try to embed natural customer behaviors/patterns/routines to ease adoption. Customer experience is critical, make it as seamless as possible.

Second, the ability to establish latent reservoirs has been a key inhibitor to finding a HIV vaccine or cure. This is similar to building Research and Development (R&D) capabilities for long-term survival. R&D allows businesses to build new strategic competencies while staying under the competitor’s radar. Invest heavily in R&D, in order to remain relevant in the future. Additionally, alternating between periods of strong activity and long periods of inactivity (while building R&D capabilities or just understanding the market), and then deciding the right time to act, can be very valuable. Sometimes, waiting is a strategy.

Drug Resistance — HIV’s Pièce de Résistance

Despite the great scientific advancements in treatment, the ability of HIV to become insensitive to drugs (drug resistance) make it a relevant public health threat. The ability of viruses to undergo changes (mutate) to develop resistance to drugs developed by their “super intelligent” host, really highlight their competitive advantage.

HIV mutates its proteins at the drug’s target site in order to prevent the drugs from binding. (think of the HIV protein as a lock, and the drug as the key. Changing the lock prevents the key from opening the door). In doing this, the virus could potentially get weaker, and therefore less infectious. However, the virus is able to make additional changes (mutations) that allow it to remain infectious, while being drug resistant. (This is also kind of cool, right?).

What can Businesses learn from this? I have highlighted the importance of adaptability and transformation for long term survival. In changing its proteins to adapt, HIV does a few things that are critical lessons for businesses.

First, the additional changes it undergoes allow it to become drug resistant while remaining infectious. This highlights the importance of identifying the critical components of your business strategy that can/should be changed or unchanged while undergoing a transformation. You must ensure that your business remains relevant, even as you evolve/transform.

Interestingly, these additional mutations often occur at sites that are different from the HIV protein active site, which is where most drugs usually target. Businesses could adopt this approach, by building non-obvious differentiators/competitive advantage. There’s something you can do better than anyone else that is not obvious to your competitors. Find that thing and excel at it.

Conclusion

Microbes can significantly disrupt lives and businesses with unprecedented impact. However, they can also inspire innovation and creativity. For example, to combat HIV drug resistance, scientists discovered Highly HAART (Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy), a combination of 3 or more different classes of antiretrovirals which have allowed people living with HIV to have long, successful lives, without transmitting the virus to their loved ones.

So maybe Louis Pasteur was right, maybe the microbes will win in the end. But maybe the lessons we learn from them will be useful to us, while we’re still here.