If you don’t respect your competitors you will never learn from them. So many organisations hate the fact that their competitors are based in low wage economies or low tax areas and spend their time complaining about “not competing on a level playing field”. Instead of hatred or envy, they need to realise that effective organisations respect their competitors and learn from them.
I’m generally not a fan of sports but I feel a running analogy is called for here. If you are a slow runner and you run in a race then chances are that unless all your competitors are even slower you will lose. You now have three choices and only three:
- Get out of the running.
- Find a way of ensuring your competitors don’t get to the race (sabotage the coach or give them the wrong venue).
- Get better
Point one is always and option. If you really can’t compete, do something else – take up tennis or chess or anything that doesn’t involve running. The equivalent of this in business is diversification into other products or markets where you don’t have to compete with competitors that are better than you in the current one.
Point two happens when governments start protecting domestic firms by tariffs or quotas. It works for a short while, but the problem is that domestic firms have no incentive to improve and compete and so innovation is stifled. We saw this in the 1970’s in the UK especially in the motor industry and it was a disaster. Protecting yourself from competition never works as eventually your competitors will find a way around the problem and you will be even further behind
Point three is the effective route. Respect your competitors. Have they spotted something you haven’t? In which case well done them – now what are you going to do about it? Do they have a natural advantage as a result of geography or low wages etc.? In which case well done them – now what are you going to do about it? Only by respecting and understanding your competitors will you find ways to catch them up and even pass them by.
Life’s not fair – get over it. We all have an advantage over someone – what’s yours and how can you use it to catch the leaders and overtake them? What’s theirs and how can you use it to catch the leaders and overtake them?
Respect your competitors.
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