Adapt, evolve, stay agile – we hear these imperatives all the time, and organisations are constantly grappling to realise them. The Red Queen Effect perfectly describes the phenomenon many of our clients are facing, constantly adapting and evolving to keep their current place in the market let alone pull ahead, essentially ‘running to stay in the same place’.

In our current client work and through conversations with leaders, we have identified four key trends that are contributing to the escalation of the Red Queen Effect.

1. Intensifying Competition: With ever-changing consumer preferences and disruptor startups, organisations are facing an intensely competitive environment.
   
   We help build resilient leaders and leadership teams, giving them the tools to balance long-term vision with pressing day-to-day challenges. A leadership team that is adaptable and proactive will foster the same in their people and keep the organisation competitive.
    
2. Rapid Innovation: Technology is advancing at an exceptional rate, putting pressure on organisations to continually learn and leverage new tech for fear of becoming obsolete.
   
   To keep up with the pace of change, leaders must walk the tightrope of performing and transforming – keeping things running whilst making progress toward strategic goals. Culture is critical – a culture of experimentation enables innovation and organisational learning at scale.
    
3. Changing Customer Expectations: With the changing technology comes changes in customer expectations as people look for increasingly personalised experiences and seamless interactions.
   
   Organisations are competing not just for new customers but for loyalty too. Customer experience is a significant strategic priority for many of our clients. We worked extensively with Vodafone to help them build a culture of customer centricity, as they recognised that through widespread technological change, it was their customers' human experience which would stand them apart from their competitors.
    
4. Global Market Forces: Organisations are part of complex global networks contending with far reaching supply chains, geo-politics and a global cadre of competitors.
   
   To remain competitive in a complex global market with many interdependencies, leaders need the right mindset and tools to make smart decisions. In this context, leaders must know how to probe/sense/respond and learn quickly from both success and failure.

How to gain ground in an impossible Red Queen Race:

A culture of innovation enables organisations to bake advantage and improvement into their human operating system, allowing for both short term enhancements and long-term gains. A need for agility and adaptability come with the Red Queen territory, and a culture of innovation is able to support this kind of movement. 

Technology is only as good as the people behind it, and smart organisations are streamlining technology to alleviate process driven tasks and enhance human interactions. With customer experience emerging as a real market differentiator, it’s also important that customer-facing colleagues are empowered to make decisions and go the extra mile for the customer.

There has also been a significant change in how organisations partner externally. No organisation can ‘do it all’, so strategically recognising room for improvement and bringing in the right people to help at the right time is a powerful approach.

At Sheppard Moscow, we have also noticed a shift in how we partner with clients. Previously, we would often undertake episodic work throughout a partnership to address an acute need. Now, fewer organisations approach us to work reactively and instead want to partner with a future focus to build leadership teams with the capability to out-run the Red Queen Effect.​​​​

You might like to take a look at our strategic partnership with Vodafone where we helped them progress their culture of customer centricity. For further insights into riding the waves of change, check out this blog on doing just that from practitioner Aoife Keane.