In The Know?
Keeping up with the competition.
Keeping up with the competition.
Forget about your own business strategies for a moment. How well
do you keep tabs on your competitors' moves? If you're like
most entrepreneurs, you probably have a thing or two to learn:
According to a recent study, most executives performed poorly when
asked to assess their competition's motives and objectives.
The survey, conducted by Bruce Clark of the Anderson School of
Management at University of California, Los Angeles, and David B.
Montgomery, Sebastian S. Kresge professor of marketing strategy at
Stanford Business School, placed participants on teams and asked
them to discuss their tactics for various business scenarios and
whether they were attacking or reacting to competitors.
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Frequently, participants misread their opponents'
strategies. About 65 percent saw reactions that didn't occur.
Worse, about 79 percent didn't even notice a competitor had
taken action--a blind spot experts say can cause considerable
damage to your business. "If a competitor makes a move and you
don't notice, it can sneak up on you, take your market, even
steal your customers," says Montgomery.
How to improve your forecasting skills? Try role-playing to put
yourself in your competitors' shoes, analyzing successful
strategies rivals are likely to repeat, or using the Internet to
investigate other companies' strategies, goals and
organizational structure. Feeling a little neurotic? Don't
worry. Says Montgomery, "Being suspicious and paranoid about
[competition] gets your company focused and keeps you
sharp."
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