Run Like theRed Queen

During my time at university I came across a business theory that has remained firmly lodged within my inner consciousness. It has stayed with me, mainly because of its nice analogy.

The concept is called the ‘Red Queen Effect’, named so after the Lewis Carroll book ‘Alice Through the Looking-Glass’. In the book, the Red Queen is seen running extremely fast and yet always staying in the same place.

“It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.”

The analogy has been applied in many concepts, most notably to thought in evolutionary biology and military arms races. But it’s in a business context that I believe the theory holds significant value.

Applied to competitive strategy, the Red Queen represents the effort needed to remain within a market place. You need to run. But to stay competitive, running itself is not enough. You need to run harder, harder and faster than the rest.

Of course, many business strategists would tell you that real strategy is about making the competition irrelevant by running different or ‘smarter’ than your co-competitors. Part of being able to run smarter, is an ability to be flexible and to react to changes in the market. It is to this degree that the small-medium sized company has an advantage over the large corporate. Without being tied down by bureaucratic red tape, the SME is better positioned to react quicker and make comparable split second decisions toward change.

What I’d like people to take from this, however, is that whether you are trying to run faster or run smarter you will need focus. You can’t afford to be bogged down by tasks or processes that, although necessary, could make you operate inefficiently. It’s not your bread and butter. And that’s why cloud computing services like online backup and email security are gathering so much pace. Small-medium sized companies are starting to realise the real value of outsourcing procedures outside their core competencies.

It’s helping them focus on the activities that really make them tick and run their races in a more streamline way.