Ecosystems and niches

However, some of the principles are analogous and useful, and the one I want to focus on today is the concept of a niche. An ecological niche is the role that an organism plays in a given ecosystem - the sum of how it lives, feeds, and interacts with its environment and other organisms. Some niches reoccur over and over, often at different scales or in different habitats. So most habitats will have their small, fast-breeding herbivores, their ambush predators, their generalist omnivores, scavengers and apex predators. But the really interesting thing is that niches tend to be exclusive - if two organisms find themselves occupying the same niche, then invariably they will compete until one is driven out or rendered extinct.

Businesses likewise operate in niches, although here the churn and development of businesses mean that there are frequently multiple businesses competing in the same niches, as well as businesses in the process of evolving to occupy different niches. An understanding of the niche one occupies: its dynamics and its competitors, is key to short-term survival. And any business that survives for any length of time will invariably have this information encoded into itself on a pretty deep level. The danger comes in times of transition - of new businesses entering a niche, or of businesses evolving into a new one. Pity the lion who tries to swim in the ocean, for there are apex predators there that it will struggle to compete with. 

As always, knowledge and metis, as well as a heavy dose of flexibility, are needed when trying to anticipate the new.