Survival of the fittest is a phrase we've all heard at least once in our lives.
Some ignore it, and others live by it.
It's the idea that unless you are constantly improving, learning from your mistakes and planning for the future, then sooner or later, a bigger, badder predator is going to come ruin your day.
For millions of years, nature has followed this mantra and as a result, the creatures, plants and organisms alive today are an evolutionary marvel to behold.
So how does this translate to the business world? To answer that, you don't have to look further than companies like Google.
Before Google, there were a number of search engines available for consumers to use.
Sites like Yahoo, Altavista, AskJeeves all provided fairly decent search results for users.
So why is it that when Google entered the market, they quickly rose in rank to eventually become the world's most popular search engine today? Simple.
Google knew that other search engines such as Yahoo or Lycos used an in-house database that would match your search terms to keywords that they had already input into their database.
This would have mixed results when searching for your desired content.
It had become apparent to Google that in order to not only thrive in the search engine market - but to dominate in it, they had to give the user the absolute best and most relevant search results.
Not the easiest task to achieve given how much raw data is needed to be sorted through, however, in the end an algorithm was created to evaluate the relevancy of web pages by analyzing patterns created by hyperlinks.
Word spread about how accurate and relevant the search results were and the rest is history.
The revenue generated from their search engine alone was staggering and Google could have leaned back in their proverbial chair, kicked up their legs, and just spend the day counting all the money they were making.
Instead, they took a page out of other successful businesses like Apple and decided to expand their operations.
Creating Gmail, purchasing the rights to YouTube, entering the smartphone market, photographing the world for Google Maps and street view, and with Google Glass and Google Fiber starting to inch their way into the marketplace, the future looks very bright for Google.
Survival of the fittest at work.
What can we learn from companies like Google that we can apply to our own businesses? It's easy to say how much Google accomplished given the financial stability the company has had.
Smaller businesses are struggling to stay afloat in today's economical world.
The good news is you don't need a revolutionary product or service to launch your company into a golden era of prosperity (although it certainly wouldn't hurt).
There are five ways to give your company leverage over the competition.
1.
If you are in a manufacturing industry and are under-capitalized, consider looking to government funding as a way to increase your output through more available machinery.
There are numerous government grant programs or tax credit reimbursement funds that will take the pressure off deciding how to cut costs in order to purchase the necessary machinery you need.
2.
Don't discount investments into Research and Development (R&D) when trying to gain a competitive edge.
With so many companies offering similar services, standing out from the crowd is key to being noticed and thriving.
Something that will help with that is investing into R&D so that your product or service has a unique characteristic about it which makes it desired.
Once again, there are numerous funding programs available to assist in this category, most notably the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) program.
3.
Company branding is yet another method of making sure you don't get knocked out of the boxing ring.
Having a poor logo, a slow website that looks like it came from the 90s, and lack of consistency in marketing materials is just asking to be left behind in the dust.
Make sure to spend time on designing proper, modern, professional looking branding materials by focusing on quality and the message you want your business to convey.
4.
Advertising.
This step is crucial in letting the world know what you have to offer.
Having the most amazing product in the world won't do jack for your profit margins if no one knows about it, right? One form of advertising that's relatively cheap and reaches a wide audience is creating a promotional video of your product/service and uploading it to YouTube.
The more creative you get in sending your message to the world, the more likely it is to go viral (a term meaning something becoming extremely popular in a short amount of time).
5.
Listen to the needs of the customer.
That may be a bit of a blanket-statement but to clarify, we're at a stage in the business world where consumers want their voices to be heard.
Reviews of products or services are everywhere and they can break your business if they are left unaddressed.
If you listen to customer complaints and working on a solution to address their concerns, then you've already taken a huge leap forward over your competition.
Also, don't be one of those companies that rate their own products with a perfect score, as people can see right through that.
Keep in mind that these are just a few ways to give your business an advantage over others.
The reality of the situation is, if you want your company to be ahead of the game, it's going to take a bit of luck and a lot of hard work.
Also, if you don't see results as quickly as you'd like don't give up hope.
Just remember, if something isn't a challenge, then it isn't going to change you.