A while ago I spent a lot of time thinking about our competition – it was very consuming. Too consuming. Especially because of the context of the media environment – one of the most competitive industries to be in.
Markets move so quickly, points of differences change daily and the players evolve quickly. So, when your energy goes into trying to keep up and beat the competition, you drain your mind of the much-needed creative out-of-the-box innovative thinking. You set the bar at a certain level, when there really should be no bar at all. If there is a benchmark or a level, then that is all that you’ll try to reach. Heights should have no limits.
Competitive advantages lie in the future and not the present. Concentrating on what is the present is not dynamic enough for the future.
Business isn’t some sort of sporting field where you only have one opposition. There is opposition at every corner. If you focus on trying to beat the competition with reactive tactics then you will only have a small area of the field covered. I say, forget the competition – keep them in sight but don’t keep them as a priority. Focus on what you can do. Try imagining the ultimate competitor instead – your worst nightmare. Everything you always wanted to be. Then manoeuvre your objectives around becoming that.
Yes, my argument may see almost naive, but the more I think about it – the more I come to the conclusion that really… there is no competition.
Kate Kendall 
Bang on Ms. Kendall. It’s about finding what’s true for your brand/product/service/organisation and executing on that relentlessly.
As I’m fond of saying, compete isn’t a strategy.