Overlapping Generations
Maintain diverse business units, product lines, or strategic initiatives at different maturity stages.
Even short-lived species can buffer cycles if their populations contain overlapping generations - multiple age classes coexisting. Pacific salmon populations contain 2-year-olds, 4-year-olds, and 6-year-olds spawning simultaneously. When conditions favor short maturation, young fish dominate reproduction; when conditions favor long maturation, old fish dominate. Total population size remains more stable than any single age class. Overlapping generations also create memory of past conditions - old individuals prove past catastrophes weren't fatal and their genes encode strategies that worked.
Business Application of Overlapping Generations
Maintain diverse business units, product lines, or strategic initiatives at different maturity stages. When conditions favor one approach, it scales; when conditions shift, another approach compensates. The portfolio smooths performance across cycles.