Nature’s Blueprint for Business: Harnessing the Hidden Power of Edges
Ines Garcia
Routledge/Taylor & French Group (September 2025)

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” Albert Einstein

Long ago, during my junior year in high school in Chicago, I read a book (whose title I do not remember) in which the author discussed what business lessons could be learned from “Mother Nature.” More specifically, what could be learned from ants, bees, trapdoor spiders, monarch butterflies, cape buffalo, beavers, and migratory birds. More specifically, what could be learned about teamwork, communication, motivation, alarm responses, offensive and defensive weapons and systems,  etc. I discussed what  I had learned with my biology teacher. She urged me to do more reseacrh and suggested several sources,  then — if I wished — prepare a report in which I share what I had learned with my classmates. I did. That report has long since been lost.

You can thus understand why I was so eager to read Ines Garcia’s Nature’s Blueprint for Business in which she explains how to harness “the power of edges.” More about that later.She notes that by “tapping into strategies, mechanisms patterns that have been fine-tuned over 3.8 billion years…business leaders and their associates “can bridge the gap between the natural world and the business world and explore how to develop resilient organizations and businesses using lessons from nature.”

Today, the business world is far more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous than at any prior time that I can recall. In Future Shock (1970), Alvin Toffler made this prediction: “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” Preumably Toffler agrees with me that valuable business lessons can be learned from what are generally believed to be “unlikely sources.” For example, from one of Saint Paul’s first letters to Corinth (e.g. “Many parts, one body”), from Sun Tzu’s suggestions about deceiving an opponent in Art of War (e.g. “When far away, seem near…When weak, seem strong…When  many, seem few…and vice versa). What can 3.8 billion years of evolution teach us?

Here are four brief excerpts from Nature’s Blueprint for Business:

The Edges: “Generally, we focus on the structure of any particular organisation by considering the parts that form the whole. Coordinating and comprehending complex structures is easier if we impose an imagined order. But that’s exactly what it is — imagined. What if we focus instead on the edges, the connections, and how they can be sustainable, resilient, and regenerative? After all the functioning of the parts depends on the interconnectedness and independence of the whole.

We must be careful not to fall into the trap of only considering those individuals who cross edges. Gaps matter too. Music is also the space between the notes.” (Page 8)

Diversity in Flux: “Life on Earth is variety by default. Diversity is good for business, not just a social demand and a moral obligation. Variety and diversity are natural and generate resilience in the system; if only we embrace it.” (39)

o Bending Without Breaking: “Tipping points are not linear. Fine-tuning (including our thinking) as our context evolves, makes the difference between bending and breaking. This also applies to the very systems we use to govern ourselves; if we only tune in.” (61)

o The Perspective: “We are bound by natural governing laws, recurring patterns across functions, repeatable traits that solve challenges — over and over and over again; if only we learnt.” (95)

Here’s another key point: Studying nature helps us to improve our judgment when answering questions or solving problems. Nature heavily depends on context, at a detailed level, and yet is uncomplicated. The guiding principle is expanding edges “because that’s where the creation happens — underpins it all.”

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Here are two suggestions while you are reading Nature’s Blueprint for Business: First, highlight key passages. Also,  perhaps in a lined notebook kept near-at-hand,  record your comments, questions, and action steps (preferably with deadlines). Pay special attention to the “In Practice” mini-commentaries on Pages 34-37, 57-60, 72-74, 90-93, and 102-106.

These two simple tactics — highlighting and documenting — will expedite frequent reviews of key material later.