Wise Choice of Competitions

Kodak exited the market after long history of making money, because they could not maintain and sustain their conditions, while businesses in the same niche did. A firm normally goes into ‘attack mode’ when entering into the market. It is a way to demonstrate the incentive to battle against any company. Plans and strategies are mainly developed to do that. But, choice of competitions are more critical than any other things. I have seen companies competing against other companies not exactly in the same niche.

Amazon is an excellent example. I have seen companies picking them as competitors, because of high varieties of reasons. During the analysis of such companies, the only question I asked was, do these companies do what Amazon does, and why the competition? It does offer a variety of services, but first and foremost it is a retail store. eBay is also a retail store. Amazon and eBay could compete against each other, because they are exactly in the same niche. A competition against such company is very similar to competing against stores that are selling your products and services.

The competitions between IOS and Android is well known. Apple is a wonderful company, and as a business- man or woman, I won’t compete against it, unless it is necessary. If my business is not in the niche of electronic branch, competition is meaningless. Most – if not all – other branches are all in the niche of finding simplification for its customers/clients. The world is now more of mobility and information than stationary, which makes applications a valuable tool. I’m better off with an IOS application than creating a product to compete against them – I don’t have the same expertise.

The best competitive strategies find mutual features, benefits, experiences etc., from others that are similar, and differentiate itself from them – right? The moment you enter into a business, you are ready for a fight – admirable and determined. A true entrepreneur must pick its opponents and battles wiser than it pick its plans and strategies.

When you choose a competition, ask yourself, is the chosen rival what you are (remember you are your business)? Key Indicator Performance is a tool that helps narrow down the choices. When your competitions are not exactly the same, exclude or cooperate with them. A smart entrepreneur will rather focus on maximizing its profit than picking battles.

He/she only focus on doing the things that competitors do not think of, and that could boost the profit more than unnecessary competition. For maximization, we need to choose tactics that should benefit our business.  It means, another company’s customer is a prospective customer of ours. If people purchase products from Amazon, then we put our products on there, and their customers will become ours, without making them a competition.

Don’t get me wrong, pick your fight – I recommend you compete against anything that stands in your way. But, we have to thoroughly assess our opponents, before choosing them, and then plans and strategies to tackles them. When an opponent is wisely chosen, plans and strategies become easily developed and executed.