The Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Friend

To be clear, that phrasing is not of my origin. The first instance of it's use comes from Gabriel Manigault, who wrote it in 1884 as he explained the basis of a political strategy.

That said, I'll keep the 'strategy' part (and his astute observation) to describe how we may erroneously look at our Competitors. (Yes, I capitalize them so as to always remind myself that I respect and take all Competitors seriously).

If you believe that you are so far superior (and smarter, and better looking) than your Competitors, you are either vain, foolish, very short sighted or all of that and more. Ditto, if you think that there is only one Competitor out there that cares about you and your Company. Let's use this as Lesson One today: Enemies tend to congregate around easy targets!

Most of us are a little more agile than that. But many of us may still tend to narrow our vision to the Competitor who is closest to us in market share, or geography or price point or products or service offerings. The ones who are closest in our self-defined rear view mirror.

Think Sears, JC Penny or Kmart. For virtually their entire (and long) corporate lives before 1994, they only cared about each other and who was likely to have better prices or products or brand messages or more stores. They were "too big to fail" before banks took over that distinction in the early 2000's. As for the local hardware and dry goods stores (wow, now that's an old term!), if they paid attention to Competitors at all, it might have only been to watch their counterparts a few blocks or miles down the road. What happened to both groups in 1994? Amazon.

Restaurants and Retailers similarly were focused, (they thought correctly) on the Competition that most closely resembled them again, usually defined by product types, price points, menus, merchandise offerings and foot traffic (Customers). Isn't it interesting that we tend to "see" Competitors who, in an odd way, we either like or even admire and we are blind to, or discount the others? (Yes, I also capitalize Customers for the same reasons of respect and importance as Competitors).

The players in these sectors got an extra year of 'safety' in their thinking over their department store counterparts... until 1995...and the birth of eBay.

I can easily add grocery, craft, electronics, car dealers, book sellers and clothing brands to the above two "events" but it would only serve to emphasize where I started in this Post. It was always easier to look at the Competitors who were "closest" to us [because], of course, they seemed to be our biggest and most obvious threat. We aided that 'logic' by ranking ourselves and the others - who was #1, then 2, 3 or 4 in the market? Except that Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Google or any of the others of their ilk never even showed up on that scale...until it was too late. Lesson learned, right?

Maybe, maybe not.

A more "wholesome" focus for us today might in fact be on a single principle: EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, EVERYDAY and of ANY SIZE is my Competitor! But we only sell (fill in the blank) so how can EVERYONE be my Competitor? Keep reading.

But does that principle take our view from being far too narrow in the past to far too wide in the present (and impossible to comprehend)?

I think not and the reason rests with my other (earlier) "Capital C" - the Customer. You see, what our brave new business world has birthed is a complete morphing of the Customer's pocketbook. It is not "if" or "why" or even "how" the buying decision will flow; it is, instead, a question of "who", as in WHO will get the Customer's discretionary spend today, or tonight or next week.

Discretion means "have money, will spend" and, by the way, it applies to B2B and B2C markets and segments as well. Customers [like] Competitors are everywhere or none of us would exist!

Here are Ten (10) Best Practices, for your consideration:

1. Put your emotions and feelings about your Competitors of 'hate', 'derision', 'superiority' 'fear' (yes, fear) and 'halo magnification' (making weaknesses or strengths larger than they really are) aside. Emotion loses battles. Clarity of vision and purpose wins them.
2. Focus 1000% on the ONLY reason that you and your Competitors exist - to win the hearts and minds of the Customer.
3. Never ignore any Competitor, their actions in the marketplace, their messaging or their products or services. Every Competitor has something to teach us.
4. Size no longer matters (as in yours or theirs) - REACH matters. Is theirs better / faster /smarter / more laser-like than ours?
5. Be the Customer - what specifically will make she or he choose one of you over the other? Study actual behaviors, not rumors or blips on the screen. Shop the Competitors not in secret or by falsehoods but really become one of their Customers and witness 1st hand, end to end, their buying experience. Realized revenue (sales) are the only true indication and metric of Customer reality and we need to understand our Competitor's Customer reality.
6. CRITICAL POINT - Become a student of how your Competitors deal with each other - are their tactics the same for everybody or have they exposed soft spots in any one's armor that could be a learning event for your organization? Ignore this point of attention and, in their game plan, you could be the next target!
7. Spend as much or more time on their missions, visions and values as you do on your own. Buried in those messages (unless they are just "vapor-ware") can be important lessons for you to chart their next moves. Look for their clarity, their focus and their priorities.
8. Find a "truth-teller" in your own organization and give them full authority to speak! Yes, we need messages that are sometimes uncomfortable, off of our daily radar or just open, frank and honest about our own chosen paths to market leadership. And, we need a scorecard that is not colored or dominated by internal voices who's main skill is being really good at shouting down others.
9. Whatever you believe you know or have assessed about the Competition, throw it out at least every 6 months and start over. At today's pace of change, that is a lifetime!
10. Attend industry meetings or conferences, especially those where Competitors are present. Go to their presentations or trade show booths. On the one hand, anything you learn may already be in their pipeline and out on the street. On the other, you may at least be able to reinforce or regroup around what you thought they were doing and what it means to your Team.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - What a grand time to be on the battlefield! Information is everywhere. People get smarter every day. Technology and data are there for the asking. Customers widely telegraph their actions and preferences. Who rises and falls is not a question of "if" but rather how fast, how far and how often. Who is buying, merging with or courting who and are you at least open to being in that part of the game? And finally, if you are big enough to be a target of your Competitors, you are still small enough for someone else to believe that you are not invincible.

David saw Goliath not as big, but instead as vulnerable!

===========================================================Allan DeNiro is an Author, Speaker and Facilitator of Learning and Planning sessions for organizations of all sizes in the areas of Strategy, Executive Compensation and Talent Acquisition and welcomes connections on LinkedIn.com.