The Beauty of Decay

Everything has a cycle. Everything. Some cycles are longer than others, and we tend to avoid the subject about ours - individually, collectively, and as organisations - in polite company.

We shouldn't.

An oak tree grows for about three hundred years, then goes into a sort of maintenance mode for three hundred, and then takes around three hundred to decay. At every single point, it's a contributing member of its ecosystem. During its decay phase, it acts as host for other life forms, returns its nutrients to the soil, tells the other oaks around it how it's doing and whats going on via a complex mychorizzhal network.

It's not difficult to draw a parallel with many of our current businesses and institutions (except for the dignified decay part). The timescales may be shorter, but the process is the same.

Hospitality was around long before it became an industry. It was provided at local level by people who were part of the community, and grew as the community prospered. As we became more con…