Biological Models and Business Success

As business changes, thinking about strategy and organisation has to change too, especially if the aim is to innovate, rather than react to the innovations of others. Innovative thinking requires innovative concepts, and biology can be a rich source of concepts useful for business. A number of recent books with biological themes are discussed, illustrating the use of biological analogies in business thinking. One important theme in biology today is the interaction between competition and co‐operation and this theme is obviously relevant to business. So too is the concept of compartmentation. The origin of this concept in biology and its application in organisations are considered.