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348 The proCess oF operaTIons sTraTegy – monITorIng and ConTrol
The ‘Red Queen’ effect

For longer-term implementations, target levels of process objectives will not necessar-
ily remain constant. They could shift during the implementation itself, especially in
highly competitive or dynamic environments. For example, if competitors increase
their performance during implementation, one’s own performance will need to
increase proportionately simply to stay (relatively) still. This is sometimes called the
‘Red Queen’ effect. In 1973, Leigh Van Valen was searching for a way to describe the
discovery that he had made while studying marine fossils. He had established that no
matter how long a family of animals had already existed, the probability that the family
will become extinct is unaffected. In other words, the struggle for survival never gets
easier. However well a species fits with its environment, it can never relax. The analogy
that Van Valen drew has a strong resonance with business realities. He recalled that in
Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass (1871), Alice had encountered living chess
pieces and, in particular, the Red Queen:
‘Well, in our country’, said Alice, still panting a little, ‘you’d generally get to somewhere
else–if you ran very fast for a long time, as we’ve been doing’. ‘A slow sort of country!’ said
the Queen. ‘Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.
If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!’
In many respects this is like business. The strategy that proves the most effective is the
one that people will try to block or imitate. Innovations are soon countered, in response
by others that are stronger. The quality revolution in the manufacturing industry, for
example, is widely accepted, but most firms that have survived the past 15 years (in
the automotive sector, for example) now achieve much higher levels of quality perfor-
mance, reflecting greater depth of operational capability. Yet, their relative position
has in many cases not changed. Their competitors who have survived have only done
so by achieving similar levels of quality themselves.

example Tesco changes its strategy 3
At one time, Tesco, Britain’s biggest retailer had global ambitions. But by 2016 it had disposed
of much of its overseas and non-supermarket assets. It had been a tough few years for the
company. In 2014 it had slumped to a £6.4 bn loss, a result that brought a barrage of criticism
from retail industry commentators. Although it was still comfortably Britain’s market leader in
grocery sales, its lead over its rivals, which had been narrowing for some time, had worsened.
Like-for-like sales (sales in its stores and online stripping out the effect of new stores opening)
were down nearly 4 per cent, and in the retail world that is significant. Tesco has not seen
numbers this bad for 20 years. Why, asked its detractors, had the company not realised that its
strategy was failing and made a change? One critic described Tesco as being ‘like a juggernaut
with a puncture and a worrying rattle in the engine’. But, partly, Tesco’s problems at this time
were, to some extent, beyond its control and a result of competitor activity. Waitrose (an up-
market supermarket, with a good reputation for quality) was serving the top end of the market
in the UK, while German discount stores Aldi and Lidl were attracting more cost-conscious
customers. Yet, the problem was also the result of Tesco failing to respond fast enough to an
operations strategy that had become inappropriate. The strategy of building large, out-of-town
superstores was continued, even though a sharper monitoring of consumer behaviour might
have revealed that such large-capacity units had lost their attraction as families cut down on

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