From Business to Biology, Solutions to Big Problems Are Always Inefficient … At First
Production and evolution make them efficient
At its peak, Yahoo would have easily bought Google.
What was Google anyway besides a bunch of Stanford kids’ play project? Mistaking the diamond for a rough stone, they focused on their Yahoo Kids. Now the only Yahoo some associated it with are boys — Yahoo Boys. Google, on the other hand, is not just a company. It’s also a verb.
Don’t know anything? Google it.
What started as inefficient is now studied in business schools. The founders have been in the top ten list of billionaires for years. They too never knew their project could blow up to become what it is presently, sparring with other bigwigs such as Apple, Microsoft, and Meta.
It didn’t start as an efficient solution but as a possibility. Inefficient initially, iteratively getting better. In contrast, large companies let this magic slip away. With so much to lose, they prefer the solution come in pristine form. Bulletproof, as McKinsey likes to put it.
However, nothing big can be captured by specific objectives.
You have to give it a chance, like evolution.
From a gradualist, continuous view, it takes time before that wing efficiently keeps the bird ‘aflight’. It comes with pectoral muscle adjustments. The bones have to be hollow. The upper limb bones need various form switches— the bones of a bat differ from those of a swallow. Yet, they all fly.
From a discontinuous view, the first sickle cell was morphologically off compared to the other red blood cells. In various settings, it became a burden to its host. But when it found a population living under the constant threat of Malaria, it found a ‘niche’.
Does that remind you of something? Product-market fit.
But first, the solution will be inefficient.
An example from the lab
Google represents the business industry.
Here’s one from the lab, with aspects stretching from physics to applied biology. I’ll try to explain a concept in as simple a way as I can. I hope I don’t lose you along the way, but if I do, the introduction to this article already clarified the point.
The process is electrophoresis. If you remember the chemistry practical, where two electrodes were dipped into a solution and connected to a power source through a wire, then you’re halfway there. You don’t need to remember much. The image alone is enough. The process was called electrolysis.
Now, electrophoresis is an incomplete form of electrolysis. It is a process the lab uses to separate molecules by slowing down the process of electrolysis. The complete name is gel electrophoresis. The gel slows down the process.
A distinguishing property of gels is their viscid nature. By slowing down their movement, it makes it perfect for separating biological molecules. Using the example we have already given, that of sickle cell, the gel electrophoresis is a perfect way of diagnosing someone who has sickle cell disease. The target molecule is haemoglobin.
My haemoglobin is different from that of anyone with the sickle cell condition. The form and thus, the charge, is different. These two types can be demonstrated using gel electrophoresis.
The two proteins have ionizable parts. As a result, they possess a charge. Subject a charge to an electric field and it will follow its complementary electrode. Cations will move towards the cathode, for example. The gel slows it down for the separation of the two types of haemoglobin.
Separation is possible because the intensity of the charge, the molecular size, and the shapes of the two types of haemoglobin are different. The stable electric field and the gel help slowly separate these molecules because of their inherent differences in size, shape, and charge.
But it is riddled with problems.
When you subject the gel to an electric current, you create resistance. To power through it, you generate heat. Heat destroys the gel-like properties we want.
Currently, several measures have been taken to improve its efficiency. A cooler can be placed to conduct away the heat generated through the gel. Still, other problems persist, like electroendosmosis, but I wouldn’t want to get into that at the moment. Several ways of evading this hurdle have also been formulated.
Today, many hospitals use gel electrophoresis for many separation tests. Initially inefficient, production introduced the incentive to improve it.
Production and evolution are synonymous
The first telephone was rudimentary.
Progressively, it changed into a rotary one. Over time, booths were set at different spots with a coin slot. One had to line up to make a phone call and hope the recipient was close to another. Nowadays, they are mobile. Not the booths, but cell phones. Today, cell phones have been so modified that they have incorporated other technologies such as the GPS, the calculator, and yet again, Google.
Who would have known that a simple two-way communication device would evolve into the efficient, pocket-friendly technology we have today? Production made it happen.
The solutions will never be perfect. Thus, the initial ones will be far from their progressive iterations. When ideated, they are possibilities at best. Innovative companies know the relevance of these processes. However, companies bent on making perfect plans are held back because they prefer perfect solutions.
When that idea guy says:
I got a million ways to get it.
The boss says:
Choose one
And just like that, they reduce their chances of making leaps.
Companies are like organisms. Geoffrey West, a pioneer in ecological theory, focused on organisms, cities, and companies and discovered unique properties about each one of them whenever they scaled. That is, whenever they increased in size. Companies grow, just like organisms. Eventually, they die.
What delays their death is innovation. Something disruptive capable of tapping into a market nobody would have predicted. Consider Microsoft. In the beginning, the plan was to ensure everyone had a computer. Every house, at least. A functional desktop.
Pretty soon, everybody would have it. Then what?
Production began making it efficient. The desktop changed into a laptop. Portable, light, foldable. Everybody got a laptop. Then what?
The shift was made from hardware to software. You could preserve your laptop but improve your software. Windows moved from 98 to XP to 7 to 11. Inefficient solutions are not what we see when the product lands on our lap.
We see the final product.
But in reality…
What I’m trying to say is …
It was inefficient at first.
The Marcy-born billionaire raps:
Can’t be scared to fail, in search of perfection
It is inevitable. Your first idea will be whack. Your execution will be off. Few people will believe in it. Your first draft will be cringeworthy. The first baby step is the funniest one you will ever see. As they continue to make the steps, it becomes better.
Think about it: Who would have thought rappers would be billionaires?
It was initially inefficient. Now Jay-Z sings:
I don’t get dropped
I drop the label
When that smart and persistent person says:
Y’all should be afraid of what I’m goin’ do next
Watch out!
This song inspired some of the lines used in this article. Source — YouTube