Epigenetics
It's not just what your organizational DNA encodes, but how environmental conditions regulate its expression.
The lesson: culture is epigenetic. It's not just what your organizational DNA encodes, but how environmental conditions regulate its expression. You can inherit culture across acquisitions, but only if you preserve the regulatory environment that maintains it.
Here's where reproduction gets truly subtle. For decades, biology taught that only DNA sequence determines inheritance - that acquired characteristics can't be inherited. A giraffe that stretches its neck doesn't produce offspring with longer necks. Your muscle gains from exercise don't transfer to your children.
This is still mostly true. But epigenetics revealed a caveat. While DNA sequence doesn't change, the regulation of genes can change in response to environment - and some of those regulatory changes can be inherited.
The mechanisms are chemical tags that attach to DNA or the proteins DNA wraps around. These tags don't alter the DNA sequence itself, but they affect whether genes are turned on or off. A gene with methyl groups attached is typically silenced. A gene in loosely wound chromatin is accessible and active.
Environmental conditions can change these epigenetic marks. Nutrition, stress, toxins - all can alter gene regulation. And here's the surprise: some of these changes persist through reproduction. Offspring can inherit not just DNA sequence, but also regulatory states.
The classic example: Dutch Hunger Winter. During World War II, the Netherlands experienced severe famine. Children conceived during the famine showed increased rates of obesity and metabolic disorders - unsurprising given prenatal malnutrition. But their children (who were never malnourished) also showed increased rates of these disorders. The famine altered epigenetic marks that persisted two generations.
This mechanism allows organisms to prepare offspring for the environment they're likely to face. If the parent experienced stress or scarcity, offspring may inherit a 'thrifty' metabolic phenotype that conserves energy more aggressively. If the parent lived in a pathogen-rich environment, offspring may inherit an upregulated immune system.
The catch: epigenetic inheritance is environment-specific. If conditions change, the inherited regulatory state may be maladaptive. A thrifty metabolism is advantageous during famine but disadvantageous during abundance - exactly what the Dutch Hunger Winter demonstrated.
Business Application of Epigenetics
Culture is epigenetic. It's not just what your organizational DNA encodes, but how environmental conditions regulate its expression. Zappos maintained its unique culture within Amazon because the regulatory environment (leadership, metrics, autonomy) was preserved. As integration deepened and the regulatory environment changed, culture expression changed too. You can inherit culture across acquisitions, but only if you preserve the regulatory environment that maintains it.