Be Different, Not Just Better!

Too often, organizational leaders become consumed with their competitors; what they are doing, how and for whom. This can frame the decisions they make and the strategy they employ to try to gain a “competitive advantage.” The paradox of this approach is that the best way to gain this advantage is not by doing the same things only better, but by doing new things in new and different ways.

Some years ago, I began running competitively. Playing sports, I always hated running, mostly because our coaches made it a punitive measure for mistakes made during practice or for poor play during games. Nevertheless, after college I grew to like running for its own sake.

Not long into my new “sport,” I entered a 10K race; my first ever competitive race. I had trained vigorously and was fully prepared to perform well, or so I thought.

Not long into the race, I felt another runner gaining on me. Not wanting to be passed, I naturally increased my pace. This process was repeated many times as the race went along, adjusting my pace to keep potential passers at bay. I finished the race winded, tired and with a time that was not what I was expecting.

I recounted this experience to a friend, a long-time runner in high school and in college. As I lamented to him and wondered what went wrong, he laughed. Then he said this: “no wonder you didn’t perform as well as you would have liked. By adjusting your speed to hold off other runners, you ran everyone else’s race but yours. The key to success in running is to find your pace and run your race.”

Business is by its very nature competitive. Organizations aim toward a selected customer base or industry segment and enter a crowded field of other providers. To the potential customer, most look about the same in what they do and how they go about it. When this happens, businesses face the reality of the commodity death spiral, adjusting pricing downward to squeeze out other competitors. In a sense, they are reacting to market conditions and allowing their competitors to determine their “pace.”

Differentiation is not a new idea, but it is one that is often overlooked, especially in a highly competitive industry.

While it is useful to keep an eye on what competitors are doing, it can be far more productive to use this intelligence to identify gaps in what is being offered and build plans to fill those gaps.

How is your business different? How do you stand out in a crowded field of mostly undifferentiated providers, each attempting to do the same things only better?

For help in better understanding how to differentiate your business as part of a comprehensive strategy, contact me a joe@ajstrategy.com.

The preceding content was provided by a contributor unaffiliated with Printing Impressions. The views expressed within may not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of Printing Impressions. Artificial Intelligence may have been used in part to create or edit this content.