Costco: The Art of Living

When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Sounds a bit cliché, doesn’t it? As clichéd as it may sound, the statement personifies the theory of evolution: adapt — or get ready to perish.

Humans are inherently adaptable. Be it the shivering cold of the arctic circle or the searing heat of a desert, humans have managed to convert inhospitable terrains into hospitable ones.

Adapting to changing environments is not an easy task. Nearly 200 species go extinct every single day. And it’s not just plants, insects, birds, and mammals that go extinct: a whole lot of businesses shut down every single day. Can you name five corporations that celebrated their 100th birthday and are looking good to age another 100 years?

If the world of the living is difficult, then the world of business is brutal. What works today may cease to be relevant ten years down the road.

Nokia is a classic case of a business entity losing its relevance in a fast-changing environment.

Founded in 1865 as a pulp mill in south-west Finland, Nokia evolved its way to become the world’s number one mobile phone maker in 1998. By 2007, Nokia held a lion’s share of the global smartphone market, 49.4%. Ten years later, Nokia quietly disappeared from the list of global smartphone makers. They still build smartphones, but most of us don’t even consider Nokia as an option.