There's nothing wrong with being "reactive". It’s not about being first; it’s about being smart, learning from first movers’ mistakes, and adapting to what people really want. Google beat Yahoo! with a better search engine. Facebook blew past MySpace by nailing user experience. Netflix left Blockbuster in the dust by jumping on streaming early. All three were "reactive".

One thing I have always found helpful is do not compete only on price . Strive to see what pain points you can solve in this competitive market that will create your customer base . This might even lead to waiting for couple of years to solve the pain points that can give you the competitive edge . If you think price is the only game, get out of the market and focus on something else

Very early in my life i read this book " Differentiate Or Die" by John Straut. An excellent book. In a cluttered market, you need to understand the competition and trends but more than that understanding your customer needs and working towards providing them the best services, innovating products and services according to the data that has been received and differentiate against your competitors to keep the company running. Ensure you lead from the front and not follow your competition.

Don’t just compete, create! By taking a problem-solving approach you can not go wrong. So ask yourself this question! What types of problems do my products or services solve and who would most want or need them?

One thing I have found helpful is that if you have your goals and values clear, we can be responsible for our decision. Why I mentioned responsibility is because, if we break the word responsible it is - 'response able' i.e. ability to respond. Whereas being reactive does not include responsibility.