How do prehistoric oceans have anything to do with business in 2025? Because a story that played out there is repeating itself today. Here’s why:
66 million years ago, a creature called the ammonite filled the seas. These crustaceans had super-thick, tightly coiled shells that protected them against ghastly predators like dinosaur fish. They’d evolved over tens of millions of years to have these outstanding defenses.
There were over 10,000 species of ammonite, ranging from tiny to over ten feet in diameter. The ammonites were supremely successful.
Suddenly, it all stopped.
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A meteor the size of Manhattan struck the Earth, and dust filled the sky for years. The dinosaurs died. Sulfur in the dust created acid rain, and that rain dissolved the shells of young ammonites. Almost immediately, the ammonites went extinct.
Incumbent companies today are like ammonites – evolved over years to have outstanding defenses against known predators. Completely exposed to disruptions like meteor strikes.
Contrast the ammonite to the octopus. No shell. The octopus has been around for 297 million years, 70 million years older than the dinosaurs. As I explain in my next book, “AI and the Octopus Organization,” when the meteor struck, it could ultra-rapidly adapt and thrive.
How?
Most creatures rely on DNA changes to deal with massive dislocations, but that approach requires many generations of evolution. Not the octopus. It has a remarkable ability to edit its RNA in real-time. RNA is the molecules that carry instructions from fixed DNA to parts of cells that can act on them.
The octopus couldn’t change its DNA any more than we can – or companies can. But it could change how that DNA informs the rest of its “organization” through editing its RNA.
This ability persists today. Pluck an Antarctic octopus from its waters and drop it into the Caribbean, and it’ll be just fine.
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Today, AI is creating a meteor strike. But, in a happy irony, AI also enables companies to edit their “RNA.” It’s super-tough to change corporate DNA (things like culture or legacy assets), but you can transform RNA relatively quickly through AI-infused capabilities like:
The lesson of the prehistoric oceans is clear and highly relevant today: BE AN OCTOPUS, NOT AN AMMONITE.
Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by Steve Wunker, Author of JOBS TO BE DONE: A Roadmap for Customer-Centered Innovation
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