Sea Fan

Sea fans are gorgonian corals that build flexible, fan-shaped colonies rather than rigid limestone structures. They orient perpendicular to currents, capturing plankton with polyps distributed across their flat surface. When storms hit, sea fans bend while hard corals break. After the storm passes, the sea fan springs back while hard coral fragments must slowly regrow. Flexibility is the sea fan's structural strategy.

The trade-off is clear: sea fans don't build permanent reef structure like hard corals. They don't create the massive limestone formations that become geological features. But they persist through disturbances that devastate hard coral communities. In areas with frequent hurricanes or strong currents, sea fans may be more successful than hard corals. The optimal strategy depends on disturbance regime - high stability favors rigid structure, high disturbance favors flexibility.

For business, sea fans represent flexible organizational structures versus rigid hierarchies. Startups and agile teams operate as sea fans - they bend when market conditions shift rather than breaking. Large bureaucratic organizations build impressive permanent structures but shatter during disruption. The choice between flexibility and permanence depends on environmental stability. Industries with stable competitive dynamics favor rigid efficient structures; turbulent industries favor flexible adaptive structures. Neither is universally superior.