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TERMS: FITNESS LANDSCAPES Biologists often refer to the "fitness function" of an organism or agent for a particular set of environmental conditions, which can range from very low to very high. An agent may have traits with a high fitness function in one environment and thus be likely to be "selected" for (which means it lives long enough to reproduce). On the other hand, having a low fitness function in an environment means the agent is less likely to be "selected" and thus to die without reproducing. (See Evolution and selection for an example.) The concept of a fitness landscape also applies in business environments. The "traits" of a company include the products and services it sells and there is a "fitness" level between those products and services and what people will actually want to buy. A low level of fitness will mean the company may fail (i.e., go extinct) while a high level of fitness should mean the company will prosper—unless the business environment changes in such a way that the company no longer has a high fitness function. For example, in terms of producing cars that people wanted to buy earlier in the 20th century, GM began to sell cars in different colors. However, the leading automaker of that era, the Ford Motor Company maintained, "you can have any color you want as long as it is black." As it turned out, people preferred having a choice in car colors, and began to buy more GM cars with the result that Ford lost market share and money. (In other words, GM had a higher fitness function than Ford did.) Finally, Ford Motor Company adapted to the change in the market place ecology by also making cars in different colors, and consequently increased its fitness to a level comparable to that of GM. |
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