Brilliant Manoeuvre
Let your competitors focus on their existing customers and products. That creates opportunities for you to manoeuvre around them.
Example
In the 1950s, Fairchild Semiconductor left the vacuum tube manufacturers to focus on their existing customer applications such as TVs and radios and went after the more demanding and much more lucrative defense and space applications markets with their solid state transistors and integrated circuits. Canadair (and then Bombardier Aerospace) didn’t try to build major jetliners but instead went into businness jets, water bombers, and small regional jetliners. Microsoft didn’t try to go directly up againt the IBMs and didn’t get into hardware, but instead offered low cost, reasonably effective operating systems and applications to individual users and small businesses. Google initially just offered search based ads to advertisers, leaving mass media companies to continue focusing on large accounts. Apple left the corporate and institutional markets to Research in Motion when it introduced the iPhone and went after the consumer market.
Tip
Use your competitors strengths against them.
Richard Martin is a consultant, speaker, and executive coach. He brings his military and business leadership and management experience to bear for executives and organizations seeking to exploit change, maximize opportunity, and minimize risk.
© 2013 Richard Martin. Reproduction and quotes are permitted with proper attribution.