London

Three British zoologists have set up a consultancy firm that plans to sell ideas gleaned from the study of animal behaviour to corporate clients.

Animals and businesses face many of the same problems, argues one of the group, Alex Kacelnik of the University of Oxford. “A petroleum company forages for oil in much the same way as a starling might forage for worms,” he says. The basic choice they face, he points out, is whether to stay in a field that is productive but in decline, or to move on and take a chance elsewhere.

Kacelnik's work on starlings has led him to believe that humans and other animals approach risk in similar ways. He now plans to apply his models of how animals cope with uncertainty through the consultancy firm Oxford Risk Research and Analysis (ORRA), which he founded last month with two other Oxford zoologists, John Krebs, chair of the UK Food Standards Agency, and Ed Mitchell. ORRA aims to study companies' decision-making processes, identify areas where risks are being misjudged, and recommend remedies.

The consultancy has already started work with clients in the pharmaceutical and energy industries, a university statement said. In work for one multinational client, it found that decision-makers tended to be too cautious about doing business in unfamiliar regions, but were too gung-ho about investing where they knew. ORRA recommended changes in where and when the client made decisions, and called for more contact between its different operations.

It is too early to say whether any of ORRA's clients will follow its recommendations, Kacelnik says. The company has worked on three projects so far, and aims to have about a dozen, along with five full-time employees, by the end of its first year's operations.

Outside observers say that the consultancy's approach may prove alluring. “Companies are willing to explore any viable approach to dealing with risk and using it to their advantage,” says Richard Apostolik, president of the Global Association of Risk Professionals, based in Jersey City, New Jersey. But to prosper, he adds, ORRA will have to show clients tangible results.

Animal behaviour can teach us much about human decision-making, says psychologist Daniel Read of the London School of Economics. But he urges caution: “Animals have the product of millions of years of evolution, but they can't take that knowledge and apply it to new environments.” In situations where humans get the chance to stop and think things through, Read argues, animal behaviour may not be a very useful model.