The Selfish Organization: How Internal 'Selfish Genes' Sabotage Organizational Success
The second law of thermodynamics tells us that entropy drives systems toward equilibrium and disorder. In his final shareholder letter as CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos referenced Richard Dawkins' "The Blind Watchmaker" to illustrate how natural selection counters entropy by building complex life through energy-driven processes. Bezos urged Amazon to resist the entropy-like pull of complacency by staying in "Day 1" mode—continuously growing, innovating, and dynamically adapting to trends rather than following predetermined designs. While this advice resonates for maintaining corporate vitality, a deeper examination through Dawkins' evolutionary lens reveals a more insidious challenge lurking within organizations themselves. The very mechanisms that help companies survive external entropy may be generating internal evolutionary pressures that undermine efficiency and threaten long-term survival. The Gene's-Eye View of Organizations Richard Dawkins' rev...
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