I was surprised to learn that the most cited work in economic treatises throughout history was not written by a brilliant mathematician or a Nobel Prize-winning economist, but by a humble Anglican deacon who was fond of photography and an occasional author of children's stories: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, by Lewis Carroll, have that honour.

Quotes taken from Alice's stories have been recurring allies for more than 150 years, used to convey the most arid and opaque economic theories in a metaphorical and friendly way. This must be because economics, both macro and micro, shares with Alice not only its everyday nature, but also a certain dreamlike surrealism; and also because, in real life, we all recognise reflections of the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter or the extinct Dodo Bird. In fact, Charles L. Dodgson's work is not only the most cited in economic treatises, but also the third most cited in the world, behind only Shakespeare and the Bible. That's because the world, like the economy, is also a little crazy.

The Red Queen—a chess piece, not a playing card—appears in the second part, Through the Looking-Glass, and is often confused with her more famous relative, the Queen of Hearts, from the first book; but that is because she has a short, powerful and memorable line of dialogue—the qualities of a good slogan—that makes her unforgettable:
— Off with his head!

The fact is that the Red Queen has a passage that should be enough to make her equally memorable and eternal: at a certain point in the story, the Queen, running non-stop, faster and faster, dragged a confused Alice by the hand while shouting: 'Faster! Faster!' Alice, dazed, wondered if the things around her were moving at the same speed as they were. Then the Queen, guessing her thoughts, shouted, "Faster, don't try to think!" Finally, the Queen and Alice stopped to catch their breath, and Alice looked around in surprise:
— I think we've been under this tree all along! Everything is just as it was! —said Alice.
— Of course! —said the Queen.— How could it not be?
— Well, in my country, —said Alice, still panting—, if you run fast enough for long enough, you usually end up somewhere else...
— A rather slow country! —replied the Queen—.

Here, you have to run as fast as you can just to stay in the same place. To get somewhere else, you have to run twice as fast.
This is known as the Red Queen paradox, and it has often been used as an evolutionary hypothesis, arguing that organisms and populations of any kind must constantly evolve to survive, while competing with others of their kind in continuous motion. In other words, it is necessary for any organism to move — faster! faster! — not only to get ahead, but simply to maintain the status quo. In a much more poetic way, Charles L. Dodgson expresses the same idea as his contemporary and namesake, Charles Darwin.

To run

On this side of the mirror, the Red Queen's teaching is directly reflected in living organisms such as brands, companies, agencies, and professionals. Today, our world spins at a dizzying pace, and to keep up with it, you have to run fast, and to achieve the feat of moving forward, you have to run even faster. you have to move twice as fast. As Nike would say, there is no finish line, because if you stop, the finish line overtakes you again. Every time a brand, whatever it may be, considers that it has gained a position and settles into it, another that has not stopped overtakes it. When a company, no matter how large, begins to move more slowly than the world around it, its decline becomes irreversible. The same is true for professionals, as that brilliant phrase from the Renault Clio advert warned: either you move or you expire. And agencies, as we run around sweating buckets, hear the Red Queen shouting at us: Faster, don't try to think! Even though we know that we must think, Because that is our job and what should make us relevant: another paradox within the paradox.

We have all seen charismatic brands disappear, powerful companies fall, beloved agencies vanish, and professionals and colleagues left behind... That is why, when—as leaders of brands, companies, or agencies—we are tempted to think that we have arrived somewhere, we must prick up our ears, because then we will hear the uncomfortable and urgent whisper of the Red Queen in the back of our minds: “Run, Alice! Run for your life!!”.