Biomimetic file 196: Exponential Disruptions

How an Understanding of Exponential Behaviors Can Benefit Businesses

Exponential growth occurs when the growth rate of the value of a mathematical function is proportional to the function’s current value, resulting in its growth with time being an exponential function. Exponential decay occurs in the same way when the growth rate is negative

Highlight: “Population growth or decay tend to follow exponential curves…Researchers at the University of Michigan have explored reproduction patterns in micro-organisms to further understand this remarkable outcome…One of the research finding is that  in a population the effective intrinsic rate of increase actually changes as the density of the population changes… a new biological concept was used in developing this theory — the carrying capacity…”

Insight: In nature it is not uncommon to encounter systems behaviors which follow exponential growth patterns. Examples would include certain populations growth or decline. The point is that what starts as a small insignificant trend can sometimes escalate tremendously fast to become a major dominant outcome.

This behavior is important in the business world as well for instance when anticipating changes, managing risks or making strategic decisions. While most tend to plan based on linear  uninterrupted flow assumptions, anticipating such possible patterns and incorporating them in planning is crucial because they have the potential to completely alter all other plans.

There are complex mathematical models which can incorporate, to some extent, this type of behaviors in planning strategies but perhaps an easier way around it is simply to accept that it is a possible outcome and to have a plan B ready in case. Plan B would typically drastically differ from plan A in that the exponential outcome would have completely reshuffled priorities.

For instance lets say that a new product is being tested on the market and it turns out that its sales significantly grow following exponential curves. Thereafter, this new product  suddenly becomes the company’s main sales strategy and requires full attention over other aspects which were until then prioritized. This type of situation, while seemingly a great news for the company, can in fact turn out disastrous if unplanned and managed inappropriately because the new focus could turn out to be destructive to other operations…

Are you already established and planning for new releases or changes? If so perhaps anticipate potential exponential outcomes and prepare yourself accordingly in order to prevent this disruption from creating an hazardous unbalance in your business…

More information here

What is Biomimetics: the field of gaining inspiration from nature first to solve some of our most difficult challenges. Instead of coming up with our own solutions to a problematic, the odds are that species or natural systems on the planet already offer an ultimate solution. This simple fact is also another strong case to preserve species at all cost as the intellectual heritage contained within or through the study of species is both irreplaceable and invaluable…

http://www.bluestrike-group.com/

Biomimetic file 191: the art of attraction

How familiarity and likeness are key attributes to business marketing strategies

Image source: Scienceline. Attraction*: the action or power of evoking interest in or liking for someone or something

Highlight: “Carnivorous plants, among them tropical pitcher plants (Nepenthes spp.), have always fascinated people due to their remarkable ability to attract* and feed on animals…these plants are now used as model systems for various biomimetic applications…a current cooperative project between the Zoological Institute at the Kiel University and the Institute of Chemistry of New Materials at the University of Osnabrueck aims at the development of hierarchical anti-adhesive materials by mimicking the slippery zone in N. alata pitchers…”

Insight: An interesting aspect of carnivorous plants is their remarkable ability to attract animal prays despite their obvious disadvantage of being mostly static as opposed to their highly mobile prays. It appears that one key strategy besides having developed various ingenious physiological traps is the art to attract prays in the first place. For instance certain species make use of sugary solutions to attract such substance loving insects…

These species adaptations offer an inspiration for business marketing strategies. Indeed, in order to attract customers a proven successful strategy is to develop products that have an obvious similarity (or clearly assimilates) to something which people are already known to like and be familiar with. As a matter of fact the reference to specific species or wildlife traits is omnipresent in products marketing and branding campaigns such as various luxury car brands built on fast and powerful animals…

Are you planning to launch a new product? If so, perhaps ensuring that it reflects obvious similarities to something that people straight away recognize and like could give a significant hedge over the competition. It appears to be basic customer psychology that in order to attract one must first inspire confidence and likeness; products that are “too innovative” and drive a sense of confusion rarely succeed…

More information here

What is Biomimetics: the field of gaining inspiration from nature first to solve some of our most difficult challenges. Instead of coming up with our own solutions to a problematic, the odds are that species or natural systems on the planet already offer an ultimate solution. This simple fact is also another strong case to preserve species at all cost as the intellectual heritage contained within or through the study of species is both irreplaceable and invaluable…

http://www.bluestrike-group.com/

Biomimetic file 187: Dance of the Honeybee

Why communications are crucially important to business health

Image source: emperion.net

Highlight: “The honeybee dance communication system is one of the most intriguing examples of information transfer in the animal kingdom…After returning from a valuable food source honeybee foragers move vigorously, in a highly stereotypical pattern, on the comb surface conveying polar coordinates of the field site…After 60 years of intense research it remains still unknown how the bees decode the dance… To resolve this question a team of researchers have built a robotic honeybee that is able to reproduce all stimuli found to be generated in the dance… By imitating single stimuli or combinations and tracking the bees’ ensuing behavior they were able to identify essential signals in the communication process…”

Insight: What social insects can teach us is that body language and patterns can be greatly effective at communicating even complex issues but that both parties need to clearly understand the language rules.

Miss-communications in business is common and responsible for tremendous income losses through mistakes and resulting poor performance. These miscommunications range from language barriers to inter-department jargon (e.g. engineers communicating with accountants), sign languages misunderstandings or simply overall poor language skills…

Some sectors are rather stringent about their communications skills: for instance an airplane pilot misunderstanding the ground staff is not an option (and vise versa) as is a columnist journalist misspelling some words. However, this is not always the norm and many companies do not put as much emphasis as they should on their employees’ communication skills (even for staff holding key positions) which reflects rather poorly on their performance as a business entity.

Are you planning to hire? If so, perhaps do not omit to investigate communication skills. In today’s interconnected world the ability to communicate effectively is definitely one of the most important skills one can have.

More information here

What is Biomimetics: the field of gaining inspiration from nature first to solve some of our most difficult challenges. Instead of coming up with our own solutions to a problematic, the odds are that species or natural systems on the planet already offer an ultimate solution. This simple fact is also another strong case to preserve species at all cost as the intellectual heritage contained within or through the study of species is both irreplaceable and invaluable…

http://www.bluestrike-group.com/

Biomimetic file 186: Tubular Micro-motors, Spermbots

How to manage uncontrollable business processes

Image source: American Chemistry Society. Control*: the power to influence or direct people’s behaviour or the course of events.

Highlight:“Recently, a new generation of tubular micro-motors was invented by harnessing motile spermatozoa as propulsion force for rolled-up micro-tubes (Spermbots)…motile bovine spermatozoa are trapped inside 50-μm-long micro-tubes that have a diameter that is slightly larger than the head of the sperm cell…The flagellum serves as driving force that propels the micro-tube forward…Since the micro-tube consists of iron nano-membranes, it can be steered externally by magnetic fields…”

Insight: The organized processes that surround uncontrollable randomness in the reproductive cycle are an inspirational business philosophy:

As in life processes, there are areas of businesses operations which are controllable* and others which are simply not. Indeed, there is a difference between complex and chaotic in that the latest is uncontrollable. Some typical uncontrollable aspects affecting businesses would include the global economy fluctuations, weather related events, strikes, road traffic, various accidents, natural hazards, terrorism…

Yet being uncontrollable in itself does not mean that it cannot be managed. The only way to manage the uncontrollable is to accept in the first place the fact that certain things are simply beyond influence. Businesses which ignore uncontrollable parameters without adequate planning integration put themselves in danger because these aspects are associated with significantly greater risks…

By accepting this very fact, a business can more effectively focus on other controllable aspects but also work towards building risk management procedures surrounding the uncontrollable. In other words the trick is to treat the uncontrollable as a risk in order to apply risk management procedures that are to be incorporated in an overall management strategy.

It sounds simple but it is actually quite tricky and many corporations simply haven’t gained a clear map of where their uncontrollable aspects are. Do you have control?

More information here

What is Biomimetics: the field of gaining inspiration from nature first to solve some of our most difficult challenges. Instead of coming up with our own solutions to a problematic, the odds are that species or natural systems on the planet already offer an ultimate solution. This simple fact is also another strong case to preserve species at all cost as the intellectual heritage contained within or through the study of species is both irreplaceable and invaluable…

http://www.bluestrike-group.com/

Biomimetic file 185: Friction-less Motion

How reducing “frictions” can lead to more effective businesses

Image source: Department of Theoretical Physics at Ural University. Friction is the force resisting the relative motion of solid surfaces, fluid layers, and material elements sliding against each other…

Highlight: “Researchers at the University of Israel have investigated the self-locomotion of certain micro-organisms…these tiny swimmers live in a world surrounded by fluids and dominated by friction… they show that adaptations have led their propulsion to be almost friction-less as the micro-swimmer are propelled forward with the speed of the backward surface motion…in other words they move throughout an almost quiescent fluid…”

Insight: For those who have taken advanced chemistry classes, a fun and favorite experiment has always been playing with liquid nitrogen and splashing it on surfaces. Observing the droplets flow speedily is rather amusing! It is the result of a process whereby the very low temperature fluid instantly boils at room pressure and temperature thus creating a layer of air below it which allows the almost friction-less movement of the droplets. In such experiment one can visualize firsthand how surface frictions can dramatically slow down motion …

Friction-less adaptations can greatly improve natural systems energy levels and the same applies to the business world. In business terms “frictions” would be defined as elements which slow the normal operations or that prevent it from performing better. Typical examples would include inefficient staff(s), wrongly applied systems or processes and miscommunications.

Image: The Fishbone Diagram provides an overview of typical business “frictions”

Basically at any given time there are areas of a business which suffer from frictions and affect the overall operations. Often the situation is such that businesses don’t even realize that they are being slowed down by these frictions and blame poor performances solely on external factors instead such as the economy!

Is your business not performing as well as it should? If so, perhaps you should consider  assessing where the frictions are and working towards dimming them…

More information here

What is Biomimetics: the field of gaining inspiration from nature first to solve some of our most difficult challenges. Instead of coming up with our own solutions to a problematic, the odds are that species or natural systems on the planet already offer an ultimate solution. This simple fact is also another strong case to preserve species at all cost as the intellectual heritage contained within or through the study of species is both irreplaceable and invaluable…

http://www.bluestrike-group.com/

Biomimetic file 143: Genetic Inspired Computer Softwares

Genetic Inspired Computer Softwares

Picture source: ags andrew

Highlight: “Computer scientists have a history of borrowing ideas from nature, such as evolution. When it comes to optimising computer programs, a very interesting evolutionary-based approach has emerged over the past five or six years that could bring incalculable benefits to industry and eventually consumers… it is called genetic improvement…genetic improvement involves writing an automated “programmer” who manipulates the source code of a piece of software through trial and error with a view to making it work more efficiently.”

Insight: The genetic code that defines species characteristics is increasingly becoming a source of inspiration for IT developments. There is a lot to learn from DNA sequencing in terms of coming up with more effective computers hardware (e.g four base coding mechanism as opposed to current binomial systems) but also software designs by studying specific sequences of DNA and/or processes involving them such as self-healing or information transport mechanisms. Many complex processes in nature involving DNA (and also RNA) are now quite well understood thanks to advances in modern genetics; it is likely that future breakthroughs in computer science will come from nature inspired designs and processes..

More information: here

What is Biomimetics: the field of gaining inspiration from nature first to solve some of our most difficult challenges. Instead of coming up with our own solutions to a problematic, the odds are that species or natural systems on the planet already offer an ultimate solution. This simple fact is also another strong case to preserve species at all cost as the intellectual heritage contained within or through the study of species is both irreplaceable and invaluable…

http://www.bluestrike-group.com/