The Red Queen Hypothesis

Every year I attend a three day event in Tempe, Arizona called Business Black Ops. It's a small mastermind group made up of Lawyers, Podiatrists, Accountants, Realters, Martial Artists, and other small business owners.

One of the speakers this year said if you're not running faster than your competitors each year you are in fact, falling behind.

Staying where you are, thinking you're safe, is no longer an option because your competitors are not standing still. He then mentioned the Red Queen Hypothesis. 

The Red Queens Hypothesis

The Red Queen hypothesis is an evolutionary hypothesis which proposes that organisms must constantly adapt, evolve, and proliferate in order to survive while pitted against ever-evolving opposing organisms in a constantly changing environment, as well as to gain a reproductive advantage.

Nature gives us examples of this every day. Turtles will lay thousands of eggs, but only 1 in 1000 will survive to adulthood. 

Because of natures competitiveness, all species must overproduce, adapt and evolve if they want to survive, and we must do the same in small business.   

How does this hypothesis apply to you? 

Regardless of how good your business is today, yesterday, or even last year, your competitors are watching you and they are devising ways to be more competitive. They've seen your success and they want it as well. 

You may be the market leader right now, and if you want to stay on top you have to continually be pushing yourself, your team and your business. 

You need to be generating business ideas and evolving how you do things on a regular basis and you need a process in place to review and tweak them. Your goal is to kill off the underperforming ideas as quick as you can, and then double down on the ideas that are producing results. 

Lesson Learnt 

A few years back I thought I was sitting pretty. I had a great team around me, my podiatry business was making record profits and I thought I could take my foot off the accelerator and coast for a while. 

I didn't feel I needed to evolve any further or come up with new marketing ideas as I was so far in front of my competitors at the time, but I'm the first to admit it was one a big mistake. Even though I continued to stay ahead of the pack, they did close some of the distance, which would never have happened if I had continued moving forward. 

Good news is, you'll only make that mistake once. 

Ongoing Self-Improvement

What was the last event you attended and are you attending events in and outside of your profession?

A recent guest on the Podiatry Legends Podcast, Drs Peyman and Viedra Elison (Episode 045), make it a habit to attend both medical and business events to broaden their knowledge. 

They said they are better Podiatrists and better business owners by attending events outside the profession. They also say it's important for their mental wellbeing to associate with like-minded, progressive, positive people. It helps keep them motivated. 

"If you feel you're in a rut, start hanging out with new people" - Dr Peyman Elison

If You're Stuck  

If you feel you're stuck and find it hard to come up with regular, ongoing ideas for your business don't be alarmed, all you need to do is start hanging around people who do have a lot of ideas.

I run podiatry marketing workshops and I know some very smart podiatrists attend, and just by hanging around these people you will be inspired to perform better.

Plus, you'll learn it's not a lack of ideas that's the problem, it's having too many options and you need to learn how to kill off the bad ones and let the good ones proliferate. 

If you have any questions about this blog article, business coaching & mentoring, or an upcoming event or workshop, please send an email to email/tf)(tysonfranklin.com

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