Comparison of dinosaurs and multinational corporations

Systemic Biomimicry of Dinosaurs by Multinational Corporations (Part #3)

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From a purely systemic perspective, as the cybernetic response to an environment, what is the minimum number of parameters required to describe an animal as a viable system as compared to the number required to describe a corporation?

Any comparison then merits framing in terms of:

• variety, understood in terms of the cognitive preferences and constraints in the organization of any information:
  • dinosaurs: paleontologists have identified over 500 distinct genera and more than 1,000 different species of non-avian dinosaurs.
    
    
  • multinational corporations: curiously the literature has not focused on identifying the variety of multinational corporations, and the number of such bodies remains unclear, despite a very early attempt at doing so (Multinational Business Enterprises: a new category of international organizations, 1968). Provocatively, in the absence of any systematic distinction by "type", it might be noted that major focus is variously given to the:
    • Forbes 500 annual listing of the top 500 American companies, produced by Forbes Magazine but replaced since 2003 by the Forbes Global 2000.
    • Financial Times Global 500 produced by the Financial Times
    • Fortune Global 500 is a ranking by Fortune magazine of the top 500 corporations worldwide as measured by revenue
    • Fortune 1000 is a reference of the 1000 largest American companies, ranked on revenues alone.
    Of potential relevance is the possibility that from a systemic perspective the distinction by type is effectively made in terms of revenue.
    
    
• structure:
  • dinosaurs: the recognition of 500 genera and 1,000 species suggests the variety of structure
    
    
  • multinational corporations: it is significant that systemic studies of the varieties of structure appear to be lacking, in comparison with species active 160 million years ago. (Perhaps this will be a focus of "organizational paleontology" 160 million years in the future)
    
    
• environmental characteristics (or niches):
  • dinosaurs: the species occupied every possibly environmental niche. Of relevance is their adaptation to different climates
    
    
  • multinational corporations: the "niche" might be understood in marketing terms as the business sector (indicated in some of the above listings); the "environment" might be understood according to interpretations of "business environment" or "business climate"
    
    
• survival strategies and predator-prey relationships:
  • dinosaurs: this is a matter of continuing study through interpretation of the fossil record
    
    
  • multinational corporations: this is a matter of many commentaries regarding "business model" and "marketing strategy". Recognition of a "predator-prey" relationship would be considered politically incorrect, although "targetting" and "going in for the kill" are common business metaphors -- emphasized by strategies based on "bullet points", as separately discussed (Enhancing Sustainable Development Strategies through Avoidance of Military Metaphors, 1998). The "predator-prey" dynamics would of course be readily recognized by those targetted by such marketing strategies. For public relations and image enhancement purposes, such dynamics would be reframed in terms of maintaining friendly customer relations. Whilst it is unclear from the fossil record what forms of "camouflage" were used by dinosaurs, it is extremely clear in the case of multinational corporations -- now extended to "bluewashing" through the complicity of the UN Global Compact and "greenwashing" in response to environmental sensitivities.
    
    
• attributes enabling survival:
  • dinosaurs: this is a matter of continuing study through interpretation of the fossil record
    
    
  • multinational corporations: this is a matter of many commentaries regarding "business model" and "marketing strategy"
    
    
• collective behaviour contributing to survival :
  • dinosaurs: this is a matter of continuing study through interpretation of the fossil record, notably leading to insight into mutually supportive relationship between species.
    
    
  • multinational corporations: this is a matter of many commentaries regarding cartel-like behaviour, bid rigging. price-fixing rings, cross-ownership and interlocking directorates. Commentary also focuses on complicity of corporations with organized crime -- presumably to be understood as another form of "multinational corporation".
    
    
• survival and viability over time:
  • dinosaurs: whilst the survival of dinosaurs in general is framed in terms of  160 million "years" (as noted above), that for any particular genus or species could well be much shorter. More detailed studies offer insights into their viability over time.
    
    
  • multinational corporations: in systemic terms any comparison should highlight the viability of a corporate species, partially to be understood as a viable business model. Much is made of those individual corporations which have survived many "decades", although the focus tends to be on how they have adapted ("evolved") over that period. In pursuing the comparison with dinosaurs, the question is whether there is an inherent foreshortening of dinosaur "years" and an effective lengthening of corporation "years". This might be explored in terms of reporting cycles, business cycles, management fashions, or some measure of mutation rate. Whilst it could be said that it took dinosaurs 160 million "years" to exhaust their environment and its capacity to support them, the question is how many decades history will consider that it took for multinational corporations to exhaust the planetary environment and its capacity to support them.

Biomimicry as a methodology implies a conscious effort at learning from nature, the case explored here may depend on mimicry inspired by the collective unconscious -- some form of deep biocultural memory (John Ralston Saul, The Unconscious Civilization, 1995). It may additionally be engendered by an associated form of conditioning and determinism in response to environmental opportunities understood systemically.

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