Stage-2: The Competitive Mode

Injunction: Fight!

This means activating the Power-centred system, i.e. recognizing the likely assertive-aggressive behaviour of your competitors and being prepared to initiate and respond in kind: defend turf, take advantage of weakness, and dominate or acquire competitors.

Review the Background

(a) Power-centred mentality.
(b) Power-centred principles in a career development context.

Even if your company does not break unwritten or legal rules of decency and fair play, there are others who will, including giant firms who know they can get away with it.

Pressures on a business can come from many directions including government, but the primary focus here is on competitors. Handling competitive pressures means addressing both product and market issues.

Success depends on:

• Monitoring competitors
• Awareness of being monitored.
• Exploiting competitive advantages.
• Waging market-warfare if required.
• Developing a reputation for toughness.
• Gaining leverage in the wider social system.
• Sustaining pricing power by squeezing suppliers or customers.
• Displacing risk.

The popular SWOT analysis (Strengths - Weaknesses - Opportunities - Threats) is oriented to survival and success at this Stage.

Dangers

The corrupting potential of power is all too evident in the commercial arena: arrogance, grandiosity, profitless expansion, financial recklessness, controlling instead of thinking, bullying relationships within and without, and cultures of dishonesty, illegality and contempt. It’s probably best to avoid these pitfalls if you can.

Q: Is competing product-centric? or market-centric? or both?

A: Work it out—then check your answer.

Developmental Stimulus

Having reached Stage-2, you know that competitors will never vanish as long as you are a profitable business in a profitable niche.

Given the competition, every business needs to distinguish itself in the market, make contact with potential customers and persuade them to buy. The next Stage deals with this need for active promotion.

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• Proceed to Stage-3: The Promotional Mode.

Originally posted: July 2009