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I recently enjoyed a week in Jordan, where I tried to learn as much as I can about the people who live there.
Modern Jordan is a mishmash of cultural influences, such as European/American "Westernization," Sunni Islam, the "Arab world," Palestinian traditions, Levant traditions, and others.
Everywhere you look in Jordan—from the capital city, Amman, to the remotest one-donkey town—you’ll see Bedouins, who make up more than a third of the population. Some live the kind of modern, urban lives that we recognize. But others live extremely traditional nomadic lives in the desert. Most exist somewhere between those extremes.
But the starkest fact about the Bedouin is this: They're still around.
Bedouin culture is optimized for nomadic desert living, and yet they survive and thrive in the modern world, with many of their cultural traditions intact.
No matter what new encroachments take place over the year to come, I'm certain the Bedouin will continue to exist.
But Will Your Startup Exist In A Year?
Statistically, the answer is: probably not.
With the increasingly brutal landscape for business startups of any kind, the harsh climate of compliance, and the shifting sands of capital, competition & customers, maybe your company can learn a thing or two from the ultimate survivors?
Here are 7 things every startup should learn from the Bedouin...
1. Master The Art Of Doing Without
Cash is for startups what water is for the Bedouin: an absolute requirement for survival.
And yet, at any point in the future, maybe you'll have it but maybe you won't.
Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen recently warned startups that the Silicon Valley tech bubble could soon burst, leaving startups with very little money to operate with. He said startups are burning through cash and that, at current rates of spending, many companies will "vaporize" when capital dries up, just like they did in 1999.
If Andreessen is right, the surviving companies two years from now won't be those with the superior product or business model, but the ones that can survive when the funding dries up.
The Bedouin way is to reject the mirage of never-ending plentiful resources, but to expect that lean times always lie ahead.
Which brings us to...
2. Build Your Culture Around Staying Mobile, Flexible, Nimble And Adaptable
Andreessen's observation about startups burning through cash has nothing to do with spending on essentials.
In fact, Silicon Valley startups are foolishly frittering way other people's money on perks such as catering, splurging on fancy office furniture, trendy office spaces in fashionable neighborhoods, less-than-essential business travel, and outrageous CEO salaries.
The Bedouin way would be to minimize staff in favor of freelancers and contractors, perhaps even having each employee work from home using their own equipment and inexpensive cloud services. Favor online video meeting solutions over business travel. Minimize spending on luxury perks like catering, massages, big outings, splashy parties. And pay top executives in options, not huge salaries.
In other words, minimize investment capital and be parsimonious with what you do get, for the sake of longevity. In other-other words, don't party like it's 1999.
3. Embrace Everyone As An Ally (Even The Competition)
Bedouin hospitality is legendary.
Anyone stumbling into a Bedouin camp will be taken in, fed, cared for, and celebrated by the group, even if food and resources are scarce—even if the person is part of an enemy group.
This kind of hospitality engenders alliances and friendly relations. It leaves a lasting impression that could someday come back to benefit you in unpredictable ways.
4. Master Your Environment
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) is one of the world's most high-tech militaries. And yet it relies on a unit of some 1,400 Bedouin volunteer trackers.
They can tell the difference between tracks made by groups of people who are supposed to be roaming the desert and by enemies infiltrating Israel. The reason the IDF uses Bedouins is that nobody’s mastered the desert landscape like the Bedouin.
That mastery of an environment—whether it's a software platform, market, competitive landscape, or product specialty—brings longevity in business. It’s one of the greatest advantages you can have.
5. Live By A Code Of Honor
Every business should have a mission statement.
The Bedouin way is for that statement to govern the personal morality of every employee, and for the organization and the people within it to mutually re-enforce that code.
For example, "Don't be evil."
6. Specialize... And Generalize
Every Bedouin tribe specializes in a very narrow range of skills—whether it's breeding camels, herding goats or something else. In fact, Bedouins rarely make their own tools, weapons or other goods, relying instead on nearby settled communities and trade.
Specialization leads to mastery: If you can do something of value that nobody else can do as well as you can, then you’ll always stay in business.
But in addition to one or a few very intense specialties, every Bedouin is called upon to know enough about everything in the environment to improvise a solution to any problem that inevitably comes along.
Most professionals are either specialist or generalist. Bedouins are both. So are the employees of successful startups.
7. Cultivate Internal Competition And External Cooperation
There's an old Bedouin saying—something like: "I against my brother, my brothers and I against my cousins, then my cousins and I against strangers."
Applied to the business world, this would be like a company culture that features intense internal competition, but equally intense internal cooperation when facing rival companies.
A great example of this was Microsoft when it was a startup: This culture of competition and cooperation—leveraging one to excel at the other—turned Microsoft into one of the world's most valuable companies.
The Bottom Line
Your startup may have the next killer app, or industry-changing technology. But if you can't survive all the challenges this competitive marketplace can throw at you, then it doesn't matter what you've got.
If you really want to survive, learn from the Bedouin. They’ve mastered the world's harshest climates, overcome every threat to their way of life and endured.
What's your take? Weigh in with a comment below, and connect with Mike Elgan (Google+) | @MikeElgan (Twitter).
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• 7 Tips Startups Can Learn From The Bedouin ~ @MikeElgan
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Image credit: Tribes of the World (cc:by-sa)
