The truth about competition

Every business has competition. Even if not directly competing there is always an alternative way to solve the problem you are solving, even if your solution is ground-breaking.

So, whether we like it or not, competition exists across every sector of business. Whilst competition can be unnerving, distracting and at times you may often wonder if your competitors do things simply to annoy you, if viewed in the right way competition is really good for your business.

Healthy competition drives us to be the best we can be. Competitors take us out of our comfort zone and help us to develop better products and services. Competition stops us becoming complacent.

If you operate in a highly competitive or crowded market, you are very unlikely to succeed by simply doing what everyone else does. Customers have a choice and this choice places us in a position where we have to compete for their business; forcing us to improve our products and service.

The truth is that if we are not driven to make things better then we stop innovating, and when we do we become an ‘also ran’. Something which takes us down the slippery slope of being a commodity provider (where price alone becomes the differentiator) and ultimately we become obsolete in the eyes of our customers. Competition fosters innovation and helps us to learn. If your business is number one and the only one, improving your offering tends to get ignored.

Competitors also help us better understand our own business and how to gain a competitive edge, by providing valuable insights into the state of the market we serve; helping to highlight our weaknesses (and theirs), opportunities and to show us what works – and importantly what doesn’t.

There is always something to learn from an industry full of competitors. We not only benefit from this, but our employees do to; helping them to broaden their capabilities and at the same time add value to our business.

Competition helps to validate our ideas; you know you have a good idea and a great business when others try to emulate what you do and how you do it. The writer Charles Caleb Colton was right when he said that “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”. Whilst people may try to copy what you do, you will still have been the first to market and that says a lot about you and your business - no one can take being first away from you.

Every manufacturer of mobile phones and computer tablets has worked hard to emulate Apples amazing success as one of the world’s most valuable companies and brand. Despite this attention Apple are still seen as the industry innovators, first to market with new ideas and able to charge a premium for this. How many other companies have avid fans queuing outside their stores, often for days before a new product is released and happy to pay such a premium for the privilege of doing business with them?

So be thankful of competitors, embrace them, learn from them and be better for the experience.

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