BCI’s articles, papers, books, interviews, and videos explain the concepts and principles behind Business Inspired by Nature, including Nature’s Principles, Leadership Inspired by Nature, and a few lessons we can learn from soils.
Re-Aligning with Nature: Ecological Thinking for Radical Transformation
Denise DeLuca’s new book RE-ALIGNING WITH NATURE takes readers aspiring for radical social and business solutions on a direct and simple path to real change: Nature’s Path. In this clear, direct, illustration-driven book, DeLuca lays out the core issues of why we are in danger due to being out of alignment with Nature and how re-aligning with Nature can save the planet — and ourselves.
Watch a lecture that tells the story behind the book here.
The Firm of the Future: A Business Inspired by Nature
The Firm of the Future has to be an organization more akin to a dynamic living organism which thrives within ever-changing business, socio-economic, and environmental systems, all interdependent and operating within the largest system of all – the ecosystem of Earth. The Firm of the Future is a business inspired by nature. It is collaborative, decentralised and multifunctional. It is adaptive, responsive and resilient. Furthermore, it plays a positive role in the ecosystem, creating conditions conducive to life. And it’s a great place to work!
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Tomorrow’s Natural Business
It is our belief that the company of tomorrow shall be one that is inspired by nature, works in harmony with nature and advances human nature (our innate creativity), what we refer to as Tomorrow’s Natural Business – is a journey, not a destination. This journey is full of optimism and opportunity, but is not for the faint-hearted. Courage, not fear, is needed to succeed and thrive in this decade and beyond.
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NESTA: Biology Inspires Innovation
In the future, with engineers and designers looking for ever more efficient and sustainable solutions, will biomimicry have an ever more important role in innovation? At this NESTA Hot Topics event, our specialist panel (including BCI’s Denise DeLuca) and panel chair debate how ideas flow from biology to product design, what tools and institutions enable this process, and how specialists in art, design, architecture, engineering and biology are bought together to address tomorrow’s challenges.
Access NESTA’s event videos HERE.
Nature’s Principles
Through the process of evolution, nature has evolved a set of ‘principles’ that allow organisms to follow these rules, live sustainably, and survive times of radical upheaval. Successful organisms in nature are resilient, optimising, adaptive, systems-based, values-based, and life-supporting.
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Leadership Inspired by Nature
The decade in which we are now living (2010-2020) has been dubbed the Decade of Fear, the Decade of Volatility, the Decade of Transparency, the Decade of Creative Destruction, and the Decade of Transformation. Whatever it is called, the message is clear: change is happening, it is volatile, it will be transformative, and conventional leadership models are unfit to handle it, unfit to lead into an era of sustainability. What we need now, and into an era of sustainability, is what we are calling Leadership Inspired by Nature.
Download Leadership Inspired by Nature, listen to an interview with BCI’s Denise DeLuca on VoiceAmerica’s Business Reinvention radio podcast on the subject of Leadership Lessons From Nature, and access a 50 minute webinar hosted by The Sustainability Learning Center on Leadership Inspired by Nature. Read the article Leadership Inspired by Nature written for the University of Washington’s Leading Edge newsletter
Natural Leadership
Natural leadership looks to nature for models, strategies and solutions to problems that are similar to their own. Leadership inspired by nature draws upon the myriad leadership models in nature that have been refined over 3.8 billion years of evolution that survive and thrive within a complex and continuously changing context. Firms of the future will thrive with limited resources and sudden big shocks in the same way that nature does. In this paper explores how leadership inspired by nature develops from conventional thinking on leadership.
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Holonomics: Business Where People and Planet Matter
In their new book, Simon and Maria Robinson discuss how businesses around the world are facing rapidly changing economic and social situations. Business leaders and managers must be ready to respond and adapt in new, innovative ways. The authors of this groundbreaking book argue that business people must adopt a ‘holonomic’ way of thinking, a dynamic and authentic understanding of the relationships within a business system, and an appreciation of the whole. Complexity and chaos are not to be feared, but rather are the foundation of successful business structures and economics. Holonomics presents a new world view where economics and ecology are in harmony. Using real-world case studies and practical exercises, the authors guide the reader in a new, holistic approach to business, towards a more sustainable future where both people and planet matter.
Learn more about Holonomics here.
Soils Simplified
Prof. Tom Deluca of Bangor University explores soil to help us understand the complexities and inter-relationships under our feet.
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The Firm of the Future: Inspired by Soils
Soil represents the accumulation of knowledge and experience passed down by centuries of organisms as simple as the amoeba and as complex as human beings. This wisdom or legacy builds on itself and creates the very soul of soil to which we are directly and indirectly connected. Like soil, the culture of business can represent the accumulation of knowledge and experience, with the wisdom of culture forming the dynamic living core of the Firm of the Future. Even when people leave, their wisdom is retained in the culture, enabling the business to continuously regenerate, adapt and evolve in the most optimal way possible.
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The Nature of Business
A perfect storm of social, economic and environmental factors mean increased volatility for our working environments. In these transformational times our organisations are being challenged to ‘redesign for resilience’. In his book ‘The Nature of Business’, Giles Hutchins explores how organisations that seek out opportunities in these challenging times by redesigning for resilience are best able to survive and thrive the volatile times ahead.
View profile of The Nature of Business (which includes a 5 minute video introduction). Information on purchasing the book can be found on Amazon (UK and US).