December 2022 (1) – Migratory Birds and Entrepreneurship.

It is a well-known fact that as summer gives way to fall, many birds begin to move from their spring and summer breeding grounds to their winter homes. The annual migratory ritual offers many insights to entrepreneurs who are desirous of analysing their routine business practices with an aim for continuous improvement.

Here are four questions that can inform an entrepreneur as much as they can an avid bird-watcher!

	BIRD-WATCHER	ENTREPRENEUR
1	Why do birds usually undertake arduous migration during the Fall season? Decreasing number of hours of light and cooler temperatures both help birds know it’s time to move on. But the most important reasons for migration are changes in food sources, especially insects, and changes in nesting locations as trees lose their leaves.	Why do businesses usually undergo arduous lean periods from time to time? Many businesses encounter lean times when there is decreased appetite for customer-spends; lean periods are also triggered from scarcity of key resources that are needed for active operations.
2	How do birds know how far to migrate and where exactly to migrate? It depends on the bird.  Short-distance migrants, may simply change altitudes, heading to lower elevations for winter. Medium-distance birds roam around to find better conditions but generally stay within the continent. Long-distance migrants, spend summers in the north, then do wintering in warmer climates of the south. The winners in the long-distance category are whooping cranes and Arctic terns, which can travel 2,500 miles and as much as 24,000 miles, respectively. Researchers are still unlocking the mystery of how birds know where to travel, but it looks like they use a variety of techniques, including "navigation by the stars, sensing changes in the earth's magnetic field, and even smell."	How do businesses know what to do and how much to do during the lean times? It depends on leadership qualities of the entrepreneur. Good enterprises anticipate such lean periods and do two things - (a) seek and migrate to fresh market segments and (b) increase their productivity. The exploration and migration to fresh market segments will depend on the compulsions of maintaining or improving the returns on capital investments made thus far. Increasing operational productivity will be in direct proportion to the scarcity or resources and also on the cost of servicing existing market segment commitments.
3	Do birds physically change at the time of migration? Birds that migrate at night start changing their routines. Some male birds lose the bright plumage that helps them attract a female during spring or summer mating season, making them closer in appearance to females for most of the year.	Do organisational structures and systems undergo changes in response to lean times? Often successful enterprises do not shy from making small but significant, changes in operational systems and organisational structures,as a dynamic response to manage the lean times. Examples can be found in areas such as advertising intensity, L&D programs, CRM programs. Seldom do these changes outlast the lean times.
4	What are unnatural impediments for bird migration? Bright lights can disorient night migrating birds. Unseasonal weather disturbances that happen midway cause food-related stress and trauma that even leads to death.	Are there impediments that impact the capabilities of businesses to survive lean times? Poor knowledge management practices and poor market-intelligence acquisition capabilities can (at best) confuse and (at worst) collapse the responses.