Survival of the Sickest

I just picked this book at the Mumbai airport, on the flight to Chennai (a mere 50 minutes) I was almost fascinated by the book. It is called "Survival of the Sickest" by Dr. Sharon Moalem with Jonathan Prince

The main premise of the book is that an individual disease as seen today, is actually a result of survival strategy of the past - in the ancient times our forefathers used the startegy to survive the environment. However, now the body has developed - or mutated to what look like a disease as the extreme environment conditions have changed!

What a potent thought for Organization Innovation as well! In the past we created processes, systems, hierachies etc to survive in the encient environment. However those very structures, methods and processes have now become major oragnization diseases - and we really have no anti-dote for these sicknesses.

I loved the book and the thought where enterprises themselves need to understand what they think and follow may have been a medicicne in the past world - now it is nothing more of a disease!