Business Lessons from the Rainforest

The rainforest is the most successful ecosystem on the planet: with more species of fish in one pond than all of the British Isle and over 2000 different species of plants per acre; the origin of half of the world's species and a quarter of all naturally occurring drugs. It also recycles a quarter of the world's oxygen. This book unveils this model for business, the economy and society. 1."These are the tallest trees of about 50m (166ft) in height....They are the Fortune 500 Companies" 2."If you are a business you have your equivalent in the bush" 3." More importantly they are the reason why there are no "bubbles" and "crashes" in the rainforest but a stable lush forest in perpetuity." 4."We do not allow the full effect of recessions to cleanse the market, so our markets are not optimal but full of dross, riding from crash to the next crash" 5." An economic depression is a bad inflammatory process, necessary for healing, but so exaggerated in scale and severity that the patient is threatened to die from it rather than the disease." 6."After a forest fire the vultures come Even the animals could not run, they were burnt like grass. It is that thorough a purging." 7." The Coco-yam has only two or three leaves, each like a telescopic dish capturing as much of the remaining 20 percent the sunlight that reaches this this level as possible ( well ahead of star-gazing telescopes at observatories. This is the niche market." The book is in three parts. The first part discusses the structure of the rainforest and integrates it with that of the market. In the market there are the skyscrapers, buildings of intermediate height, and low buildings. The rainforest has a layer of very tall trees called the emergents, an intermediate layer of trees called the canopy and a layer of small trees and shrubs called the understory, so the lessons begin .The lessons are delivered under a distinct subheading and italicized to distinguish from the rest of the text. They run right through the book which is written in exciting language, delving into every concept and issue of business and society. This is the second part of the book. The third part of the book discusses a totalistic way of life that is based on continuous rational decision-making over every aspect of life up to the littlest tit bits to guarantee, more than every other method, optimal success as it makes the most of every opportunity leaving no stones unturned. Here the author, being a medical doctor, expounds "self-propulsion." This quote "The pathway for processing commands/orders is stronger, more executive, and less susceptible to our desire for convenience. The pathway for processing personal wishes is weaker and more susceptible to our desire for convenience. By channeling our more challenging day to day intentions through the command pathway our performance is enhanced by adrenaline and other substances so that we don't fail at the task. This happens before an exam and before a race to improve your performance. It is better than taking coffee; it is fast and permeates all the right places." And this "I abhor the use of foreign substances and do not even take coffee, so this passage must not be misconstrued as encouraging the use of performance enhancing drugs. Your body has stocks of them, tell it to release some more because it is now a more intense world than the days of relative ease and much space on farms." New revelatory perspectives are a consistent thread in the author's writings.