Business Lessons from Cicadas
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(from my series “Business Lessons from nature”)
There are two really cool business lessons we can learn from Cicadas.
The first is that competition is good.
Cicadas emerge in great numbers over a 6–8 period depending on the species. But the males wait for a couple of weeks before they begin chorusing(or singing). It takes a certain number of males to maintain a chorus. And whilst each individual aims to find a mate, it is the group that works together to create a whole ‘market’ of males. The competition for a mate has a positive effect on each and all at the same time.
The second is persistence.
A male cicada will contribute to the chorus for several weeks. That is vibrating their two little drums on their abdomen repeatedly at close to 100 decibels and at a frequency of 4.3 kilohertz — that is an astonishing 4300 times a second!
Whilst they don’t sing the whole time, they do sing for a lot of it.
Frequency or repetition of messages is an important rule in marketing a business. Along with Reach. The number of people who hear/see your message and the number of times they see/hear it can impact greatly on your success in selling products and services.
So there are two things you can learn about business from the humble sap sucking Cicada — the loudest of all insects.
