Insight article

Lessons to be learnt from creepy crawlies!

One of the great things about our new office in South Kensington is that we’re just across the road from The Natural History Museum…

Whilst strolling around the Creepy Crawlies section the other day I came across a placard reading ‘ CHANGE IS A DANGEROUS BUSINESS.’

It was referring to the lifecycle of butterflies, some of whom risk annihilation during their transition from caterpillar to butterfly, because they have brightly coloured pupae that may attract predators.

That got me thinking:

As businesses attempt to make big changes, they too expose themselves to failure, even annihilation.  Think about how at risk the major record labels are at the moment as they attempt to compete with Apple for music downloads by totally overhauling their business model. Those that can’t make the right changes in time will die, simple as that.

Then there’s Woolworths: once a giant of the high street who failed to realise it needed to change, or maybe it just didn’t change quickly enough. It saw its business gradually eaten away by the supermarkets and online retailers until its 99 year-old brand became, sadly, just a nostalgic memory.

So the placard in the museum was right. Change is a dangerous business, but sometimes not changing is more dangerous…

Nailia Tasseel