Harvard Business Publishing

Scott, great post. I've been thinking about the recent HBR article "The Incumbent's Advantage," and while it's not the point of that article, I think that incumbents suffer lots of disadvantages, not least of which is the lack of peripheral vision you describe here.

The Sonys of the world don't get hit head on by innovative competitors. They get sideswiped. Then they sit by the side of the road, nursing their wounds, saying, "What hit me? Who was that?" as their competitor tears off down the road.

Also, not viewing Playstation Portable users' activity as "time wasting"--as somehow more honorable than DS users' or iPhone users'-- demonstrates another incumbent disability--hubris.

regards, John

Hi Scott,

Very interesting note. We are writers on Marketing and on reading your views think immediately of Theodore Levitt's classic "What business are you in?"

Its a very motivating thought. Looking beyond the obvious...as you point out "what is the consumer trying to get done?".

Our example- Michelin, a tire company. It started as one. Need not have remained so focused on this business, though. Its brand that stood for quality mobility...and it should have moved in many new directions. A travel website- tie in the Michelin star rated restaurants to star rated accommodation, star rated holidays .....why did the lonely plant take over this space? Why did Opodo or a bevy of travel websites take over this space , given that Michelin's maps are the finest and most widely used - at least in Europe.

The customer's state of mind is not static. We use a product, and once we have mastered it, we want to take it to the next level. This is mostly interpreted by companies as the license to build a better mousetrap.

The consumer wants to be engaged 24/7. Most young people i know want to be connected to their peers on their terms. Not all the time...but when they want the connectivity, they expect to have it. Technology makes this possible. Smaller devices, more powerful devices allow them to "waste time" playing games...yet get on the internet in a second to look at the the assignments due for the next day.

Clearly what an Apple understands about technology and the needs people want to satisfy with it, Sony does not understand.

Truly remarkable question this..."what does you customer want get done?"

Ritu Venkatesh Rangachari
Logothoughts

How to Implement a Strategy Without Disrupting competition?

Scott, thanks for the excellent post.

A related question, that may be included within your "simple" question is, "Who is your competition, by line of business?"

The structure of the above question will likely improve the quality of the answer.

Another simple-sounding question that many companies find difficult to answer with clarity is, "What lines of business (industries) do you compete in?"

Hi Scott

While everyone makes an interesting point about being surprised by customer behaviour, I am concerned that we are all repeating what has been said to managers, CEO's and generals for decades if not centuries. Why is it that with the vast amount of information available, the management disciplines and learning out there, that companies are still being surprised??

For example, competitive Intelligence has been around as a modern management discipline ever since Michael Porter wrote his first book back in the 1980's. (Mind you the Rothschild's used CI well to their advantage during the battle of Waterloo, and so did Sun Tzu several centuries before, expound its virtues!) Additionally analytical techniques for managing market and environmental information has been around since the early 1900's if not before. Have a look at my two books on analysis....

So with all this at an executive's fingertips why do they still get surprised?

I don't believe it is because they are not listening to customers. Every executive will deny this too. May I suggest it has more to do with executive own mindsets than the mindsets of customers?

I would like to suggest that when senior executives focus on their own mindsets, biases etc, they are then defining their competitive set... instead of learning from the environment in which they actually compete.

Change is the only constant in life.
Companies build the same products or extrapolate features of existing products into "new" ones: not really taking any risk because of quarterly earning reports.
The real change or innovation comes from a different source than the leading competitors.

It is very difficult for any management to know who will the next competitor.