Adaptation
A trait that increases an organism's fitness in its environment, or the evolutionary process by which such traits arise. Adaptations result from natural selection acting on genetic variation.
Used in the Books
This term appears in 39 chapters:
"This book reveals why the company that's growing fastest is often the one about to die. Book 3: Environmental Adaptation How organisms sense and respond to changing conditions. Markets shift. Technologies emerge. Competitors evolve."
"...'re becoming brittle. Mature companies often have rigid membranes. The mechanisms that preserved identity during growth become barriers to necessary adaptation. Blockbuster. Kodak. Nokia. BlackBerry. All had rigid membranes when environments shifted. C) Selectively Permeable (Healthy) Symptoms: - You h..."
"The whale's metabolic strategy is: feast intensively, then fast efficiently. The Camel: Metabolic Adaptation to Scarcity Camels demonstrate yet another metabolic strategy: extreme adaptation to resource scarcity. A common myth: camels store water in thei..."
"...Plates May Be Necessary Before you protest "but my industry is different," let's acknowledge three contexts where the standard diagnostic requires adaptation: Two-Sided Marketplaces**: You must invest in both buyer and seller acquisition simultaneously before achieving liquidity."
"Chapter 4: Environmental Sensing - Feedback, Adaptation, Response The bacterium Escherichia coli swims through your gut at roughly 30 micrometers per second. It can't see. It can't hear."
And 34 more chapters...
Biological Context
Adaptations can be structural (camouflage), physiological (antifreeze proteins), or behavioral (migration). They represent evolutionary 'solutions' to environmental challenges. Adaptations are always relative to specific environments—a trait adaptive in one context may be maladaptive in another.
Business Application
Business adaptations: capabilities that improve competitive fitness. Adaptations must match the environment—a capability valuable in one market may be useless or harmful in another. Over-adaptation to current conditions can impair response to change.