Liebig's Law of the Minimum
Formal Statement
"Growth is limited not by total resources but by the scarcest resource"
Mathematical Form
Growth = f(min(R₁, R₂, R₃, ...)) where Rᵢ represents each required resource Description
A system's growth is constrained by the resource in shortest supply, regardless of the abundance of other resources. A plant with abundant water, sunlight, and phosphorus but limited nitrogen will be limited by nitrogen.
Biological Implication
This explains why adding more of a non-limiting resource doesn't improve growth, and why removing a bottleneck often reveals a new one. It's the fundamental law of ecological limitation and drives resource competition.
Business Implication
Companies are limited by their scarcest critical resource - which may be capital, talent, distribution, trust, or regulatory approval. Pouring more of a non-limiting resource into a system is waste. Effective strategy identifies and addresses the true bottleneck, knowing that relieving it will reveal the next one.