The startup business scene is notorious for being a harsh environment. Constant changes can put a lot of stress on businesses. And if you are not careful enough, these stresses can sink your fledgling company even before it gets to spread its wings.
Hence, one of the foremost goals you should have is strengthening your company against these stresses. One of the paths that you can take here is becoming an antifragile company. But how does that work exactly and how do you achieve it for the benefit of your customers?.
Defining Antifragility
In its most basic definition, the term antifragile simply means the ability of a system to cope up with the stresses that it encounters.This isn’t just about being able to survive these. There is also the emphasis on the ability of a system to use them for improving itself.
Nassim Taleb. Image from CNBC.
The term was coined by essayist and statistician Nassim Taleb. In his book Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder, Taleb observed that the phenomenon has always been present in the natural environment. He notes that the mechanism has been behind everything that has changed through time, from natural evolution and even to the growth of societies.
What An Antifragile Entity Looks Like
Taleb also gave a picture of what an antifragile entity looks like. Here, he describes it as one that actually loves the randomness brought about by stressors. He says this allows the entity to pursue things that might have unknown results, yet succeed in the effort.
Non-Predictive Decision Making
Another aspect of antifragility that makes it an interesting concept is the idea of non predictive decision making. As the name implies, you make decisions here based not on what you think the future might. Instead, the focus is on making decisions based on the current stressors you are experiencing.
Image from Insperity.
This might seem counterintuitive but Taleb notes that there is a lot of uncertainty in different fields. The mindset actually helps you determine if the system is fragile even if you don’t know the nature of these uncertainties. That gives you a better shot at developing solutions for these risks.
Why Antifragility Should Matter To Your Startup Business
With all that talk, you may still wonder if the antifragile approach would work on a startup business. And as it turns out, the answer is yes. Here are several key reasons why you would want to explore this strategy further.
Solving Immediate Problems Better
When running a startup business, you will often be faced with various problems daily. An antifragile mindset can help you go through all these problems by helping you solve the immediate ones faster.
Image from Work It Daily.
Here, the key is you always anticipate that there would be these problems. With that, you actually become calmer and approach these problems with a more open mindset. That helps you look for the most suitable solution at the moment.
Better Navigation Of Changes
When dealing with the above problems, we see them as individual events. However, the antifragile mindset recognizes them as successive ones that lead to change. And as have been mentioned earlier, change is a constant one in the startup business scene.
Working with this mindset lets you more successfully navigate that path to change. Here, you get to see the relationship between each event. You can then use these to plan out the course of your startup. This also allows you to create strategies for changes that you are not aware of simply by knowing that they can happen.
Developing A More Stable Business Framework
This might seem odd since we already said that change is always part of the antifragile mindset. But it actually helps you strengthen your existing business infrastructure to withstand sudden swings. That is important because the more sturdy your business is, the better it can withstand large scale unpredictable events, known as black swans.
Image from Construction Executives.
A particularly noteworthy black swan is the coronavirus pandemic. Nobody really understood the magnitude of its effects until it was well underway. However, companies with a more antifragile mindset saw it as an opportunity to strengthen their presence. And you would definitely want to follow in their footsteps to protect yourself from another such large-scale disruption.
How Your Startup Business Can Become Antifragile
Now the question remains. How do you exactly build your startup business to be antifragile? Interestingly, it isn’t as hard as you might think. But it does require you rethink a lot of things about how you respond to the business environment.
Anticipate And Overcome Stress
As we have said throughout the article, antifragility thrives on the idea that stress will always be a part of the environment. Thus, you should be ready to anticipate these stressors. Think about the situations that can happen and list them down. You can also get your team pitching in possible scenarios based on their experiences.
Image from LinkedIn.
Here, you will be able to determine dozens of possible stressors. But don’t think of these as the only ones. As you go through your business, actively look for signs of potential stress. You can then relate these new stress points to your previous ones to see whether there is a connection between them.
Be Resilient To Decision Making Biases
This might seem like odd advice, but you should not put all of your trust on business forecasts. While they give you an idea of what a future scenario might be, it is not the only possible one. Thus, you still need to look for other ways that you can achieve your desired results.
That doesn’t mean that you have to disregard these forecasts though. But you still need to be cautious on how to approach them. That will help you better utilize them in your strategies.
Create A Culture Of Learning And Experimentation In Yo0ur Startup Business
As we have already mentioned earlier, an antifragile entity thrives in change. But to get the most out of that, you need to learn from these changes. Encourage that culture by helping your team better understand what they can gain from these changes.
Image from Inkjet Office Hacks.
You would also want to go beyond that. Here, the goal is for you to induce change this time around . This involves encouraging your team to be more experimental in their approach. This is a great way for you to discover new strategies.
Toughen Your Startup Business By Embracing Change
Becoming antifragile is not a simple strategy. It’s a total change in mindset that you should be ready to embrace. But when you achieve it, it will help your startup business stay standing in the business scene. And we are ready to help you achieve it. Sign up with us today.