Competing on Unrecognized Battlefields

It is nearly impossible in today’s world to completely differentiate yourself as a company. If you do and enjoy success, you can expect a host of competitors that will strive, and succeed in many cases, to copy your value proposition. So where does that leave us as leaders? Our job as the visionary is to think of, and articulate, innovative products and/or services that enable our company to compete successfully over extended periods of time. If that is impossible, then what do we do?

Find unrecognized battlefields and win your competition there.

In business school, our instructors stressed the “4 P’s of Marketing” – Product, Price, Promotion, and Place. This model of marketplace competition resonated with me and gave me a start on where to compete in business. The problem with this model is that these “battlefields” are obvious and everyone is already competing in these areas with their very best. Everyone is going to compete with their best price. Everyone is going to compete with the absolute best customer service they can possibly provide. Everyone is going to produce the best product possible. It is difficult to win decisively in these areas.

I recommend taking a step back and identifying the unobvious battlefields where you are competing. Andy Andrews, the instigator of this post, said he was working with a D-I football program and identified the time between plays as an unobvious battlefield between two football teams. He identified that the defense displayed different behavior in the fourth quarter than they did in the first quarter. Andrews’s hypothesis was that the defense’s behavior was very correlated to the aggressiveness of offensive coordinator’s play calling. He recommended to train the defense to portray aggressive and fresh behavior throughout the whole game, even if it is faked. The program experienced impressive results because of this change. The team gave up less big plays because the offensive coordinator made more conservative decisions. 

The time in between plays in a football game is an unobvious battlefield where games can be won. What are the unobvious battlefields in your business? Are there any areas where you can make small changes that would create substantial gains because no one else is paying attention to them? With a victory on one of your identified unobvious battlefields, could you use it to win more business, recruit better talent, or make your company culture stronger? 

It is incredibly difficult to create something truly unique and sustainable in today’s business world – unless you go to the areas where no one else is. 

Where can you find your advantage?