When you were at school, did you enjoy or hate science classes? Whether or not you liked physics, chemistry, biology or mathematics, the sciences may be more relevant for your business than you think. Isn’t it intriguing that broadly interested universal geniuses like Leonardo da Vinci or Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who were most admired for their artistic works, were also passionate about the natural sciences? Not surprisingly, both genius creators regularly connected their scientific insights and knowledge to resolve a problem in another domain of their interest.

For a business strategist, the sciences are an interesting hunting ground for new thoughts, insights and ideas in your effort to create strategic differentiation for your business. Today and in two weeks’ time, let’s stretch our strategic thinking by looking at 10 natural and modern laws (from our pool of 30 scientific laws that we designed in a proprietary strategic THINKERGY I-Tool that we titled Unblinded with Science).

1. The Law of Gravitation

Newton’s famous law on the force of gravity states that every point mass in the universe attracts every single other point mass by a force pointing along the line intersecting both points. Thereby, this gravitational force is directly proportional to the product of the two masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the point masses. Simply put, Sir Isaac Newton suggested that there is attractive force between each and every pair of objects in the universe.

Questions: What is your main “attractive force” or level of attraction to important focal points (like key account clients)? How can you increase your “attractive force” by reducing the distance to your target or by increasing your critical mass? How could you use the attractive force of others to boost your own attraction?

2. The Marginal Value Theorem

For most businesses, Eric L. Charnov’s Marginal Value Theorem in behavioral ecology may spell out an inconvenient truth of nature. Charnov looked at foraging animals exploiting resources distributed in patches with the intent to determine the optimal point of time to leave a patch to start searching for a fresh one. The theorem asserts: “An animal will forage for food in a given area until the rate of energy consumption reaches its maximum; i.e., the animal is assumed to have evolved to optimize a cost/benefit ratio: searching for and manipulating food is costly, while food is a benefit. In other words, the time to move on is just when things seem to be at their best.”

Questions for businessmen: What resource bases have you used for too long? What are areas in your business where things seem to be at their best right now? What areas do you need to abandon now to move to the next “food or energy” source? Where should you look for areas that promise ample “new resources” (e.g., new revenues, new markets, new customer groups)?

3. The Third Law of Motion

Another important law from Newtonian physics that is interesting for business strategists is Newton’s Third Law of Motion: “To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction: or the forces of two bodies on each other are always equal and are directed in opposite directions.” In other words, every action has a reaction equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. For example, if you press your finger on a table, the finger is also pressed by the table.

Questions: What actions and reactions are involved in a strategic business situation that you currently explore? What possible reactions from other stakeholders (e.g., competitors, customers, regulators) might you expect as responses to your actions? What alternative actions can you take to avoid the said reactions? How can you react to the anticipated actions of key stakeholders (like your core competitors)?

4. The Principle of Competitive Exclusion

A fundamental natural principle that guides the fight for survival in nature and is equally applicable to the competitive world of business is the Principle of Competitive Exclusion. The Russian ecologist Georgii Frantsevich Gause formulated it as follows: “If two competing species coexist in a stable environment, they do so as a result of a niche differentiation. If there is no such differentiation, one species will be driven to extinction.”

Questions: What is our unique niche of differentiation? What is our “only-ness” factor? (i.e., “We’re the only company that…”) What “other species” can coexist with us in the wider market space as result of a niche differentiation? How can we further and deepen our uniqueness? What actions can we take to better create differentiation from our competitors?

5. Antiparticles

Let’s end today with another natural law that raises interesting questions for businessmen, the Theory of Antiparticles. Paul Dirac and Carl Anderson jointly discovered that “for every known particle, it is possible to find an antiparticle — a particle that has the same mass but is opposite in every way. When a particle and an antiparticle come together, they undergo a process of annihilation in which the two particles disappear.”

Questions: Who or what is your “antiparticle”? How can you make use of your antiparticle? How can both you and “your antiparticle” avoid the process of annihilation?

In two weeks from now, we will continue this article by looking at five modern laws that businessmen ought to be aware of when working on their strategy.

© Dr. Detlef Reis 2010. This article was published in parallel in the Bangkok Post under the title “Unblinded by science” on 18 March 2010.