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Friends and friction: Business lessons we can learn from trees

AUTUMN is here, and the trees are giving free business lessons for everyone who has the time to appreciate them.

It is a tragedy that so many people go through their working lives without ever acknowledging our neighbours in nature; the tweeters, the barkers and the mewers who protect us from rats, and the mooers who give us milk and meat.

Trees give you the oxygen you breathe, and yet you drive past them as if they don’t even exist. If you listened to them with the respect they deserve, you’d get free business consulting too.

A tree is unsentimental, and so is a good business manager.

When the water is scarce, and the cold bites, they change the colour of their leaves to those photogenic yellows and deep oranges.

No one will ever know the mood of the trees at that time, but we do know that soon thereafter, the trees shed all those unnecessary costs.

Take heed.

It’s autumn, and perhaps it’s a good time for you to look at costs in your own business.

Do you need that fanciful office?

Of course, make sure you work in a comfortable environment, but remember that a business with a healthy bank balance is stress-free.

So many business people spend as much as they make, which is like eating a breakfast full of dairy products while suffering from heavy diarrhoea. Everything is going to waste.

Look at the trees, they concentrate on growth and little else.

They grow tall, and the roots, which are the equivalent of company headquarters, are kept to a minimum.

The focus is on branches where the work gets done and the fruit is produced.

When the first rains arrive, they flower, advertising themselves to the birds and bees to come and get the nectar.

It is a great return on investment for the tree, because these guests carry pollen with them, and then sit in another tree, and this way, it spreads its genes or creates a family of its own.

Many companies despise advertising, and any manager who despises it is like a tree that fails to flower in spring.

It is a question of time before his company dies.

Trees teach us, in their inaudible language, that in order to remain relevant in our businesses and, indeed, in everything we do, we need to learn to adapt to the changing circumstances.

Crisis is part of life.

It is what valleys are to landscapes.

Many businesses do get into trouble.

Amazingly, some plants such as the suikerbos need fire to flourish, giving the world some of the most prized flowers – the proteas.

When you crash into a crisis, do not allow it to define your future, get up.

But do try to keep crises to an absolute minimum.

It is good to heed Nikita Khrushchev’s words: “How many times must you be burnt before you respect a fire?” After all, it is those who have the fewest crises who win.

The trees that stand at the forefront of the forest are the ones that face the bitterest winds; likewise, the leaders and the innovators will get the most resistance, and so you need to learn to live comfortably with negativity.

The word no is what you will always hear in business, and if you’re going to get what you want, you’ll have to find a way around it.

Trees aren’t afraid to stand tall – so stand for what you believe in.

When the fads have gone with the wind, customers will come to sit in the shade you provide.

* Muzi Kuzwayo is the founder of Ignitive, an advertising agency.

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