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Maine State Chamber of Commerce
is one of the most quoted — and misunderstood — statements in our lexicon. Most people think Darwin’s famous shorthand description of evolution refers to those who will win as the biggest and the strongest, those with the longest teeth or most aggressive nature. But if this were true, the dinosaurs would still be in charge and we would be a footnote in evolutionary history (“Delicious while they lasted,” said Mr. T. Rex). What Darwin meant, however, is quite different and applies to all facets of our lives. For him, the “fittest” were those most adaptable to change. And this is particularly applicable today as we live through the most rapid period of change in human history. The transition from hunter-gatherers to settled agriculture took hundreds of thousands of years. “ S U R V I VA L O F T H E F I T T E S T ”
PHOTO: COURTESTY SENATOR ANGUS KING
MAINE VOICES
A Message from Senator Angus King
The transition from an agriculture-based society to industry took hundreds of years — in 1820, over 90% of Americans were engaged in agriculture, today, it’s 4%. The transition from a manufacturing economy to services took decades, and the transition to a digital economy is taking place before our eyes in a matter of years, if not months. What does this have to do with business? Everything. Failure to adapt to changing markets, changing consumer tastes, or changing modes of commerce is a recipe for decline and ultimate extinction (to use a term Darwin would certainly understand). Another word for this imperative is innovation, which comes from the Latin word novus, meaning, not surprisingly, new. To put it most simply, in today’s world, a failure to continuously innovate means eventual institutional death. I emphasize “continuously” because today’s brilliant innovation soon becomes old news, so renewal should be looked upon as a process, not an event. The business landscape is littered with the carcasses of once-great brands — American Motors, K-Mart, TWA, Polaroid, Kodak, (almost) Sears, and more recently, Circuit City, Blockbuster, AOL, Wang, Alta Vista, and (almost) Blackberry. The causes of their demise were many and varied, but a failure to adapt to changing markets and the innovations of others was certainly part of the sad story. On the other side of the ledger, of course, are companies that were nimble and flexible enough to glimpse the future and embrace inevitable change rather than resist it. One of the best national examples of this is Verizon. Originally part of the old monopoly-based landline telephone system — New England Tel, Bell Atlantic, then Nynex, in the mid-nineties their leadership anticipated the revolution wrought by ubiquitous mobile phones and began to shed the legacy landline business and plunged headlong into mobile. From there, they moved on to internet services and streaming TV. Remember, innovation is a process, and to survive, it can never stop.
