Keeping Up: A Fool’s Game

Keeping up with technology, competitors or anything in business – or life – is a fool’s game. Think about it: what’s the advantage to just keeping up? There is none,
because all you’re doing is making yourself just like everyone else. You’re finding out who the best is and then you’re copying the best. But by the time you’re as good as
the best, the best has already moved on to something better and you’re still far behind.

Realize that “benchmarking” is just a fancy way of saying “keeping up.” So how do you truly stand out from the crowd? The key is to forget about keeping up; set a new standard for yourself and your company. Consider the following suggestions.

LOOK TO THE FUTURE
Rather than keeping up, smart businesspeople benchmark in a way that looks to the future. When they plan their future growth, they ask themselves three key questions: Where are the successful companies evolving to?
What path are my competitors on right now?
What’s the logical progression of the industry?
Asking these questions enables you to go beyond your competition and get off the keeping-up treadmill. It opens your eyes to future possibilities and helps you stay ahead
of the pack instead of side-by-side of it. Remember that only when you go beyond your competition will you find an advantage, as well as the financial rewards that competitive
leg-up brings.

DO WHAT THE MASSES AREN’T DOING
Most businesses do exactly the same thing as their competitors and then wonder why they don’t have the upper hand. Everyone is keeping up, but few people are doing so in a way that produces any real advantage. The key is to dedicate yourself to finding an advantage and using it. Don’t just copy what the competition does; rather, look at what they’re doing and then do what they don’t do.

If you can’t find anything different to do, then determine if there’s a better customer you can go after. Can you customize your product or service so that the better customer would prefer what you offer? This is the process that gives you the advantage, and it all boils down to simply being more innovative on an ongoing basis.

GO BEYOND PRICE COMPETITION
Even though there are many ways to compete, most companies tend to focus their strategies on only a few of the many ways to gain a competitive advantage. This
limits their ability to create and sustain true competitive advantages. In order to have a lasting competitive advantage, you need to go beyond pricing and develop a competitive strategy that includes a wide spectrum of techniques.

What’s the problem with competing through price? The main problem is that it means lower margins and a higher volume to make up for it. If your intent is to be a competitor of price, then that is fine. Just realize that you have many more options. In addition to competing on price, you can compete on:

Time, Reputation, Values, Technology, Image, Experience,
Service, Design, Innovation, Quality, Information, Knowledge,
Consultative Value Loyalty, Process.

To get away from keeping up with your competition, review the list of different ways to compete and ask yourself,“Do I have strategies for those means of competing?”
Most companies compete in only one or two areas, and have a detailed strategy for both. But few compete in all areas. To gain an advantage, you want a strategy for every
area. Detail how you are different in each area so you can go beyond keeping up and into truly standing out.

DON’T IMITATE – INNOVATE
In the future, competition will intensify. Therefore, in order to gain advantage, you need to differentiate yourself from the competition. And while it is good to keep track of the competition, far too many organizations focus more attention on “keeping up” than on internal innovation. Perhaps there was a time when it made sense to play the one-up game. But the dramatic changes spawned by science and technology have made it a perilous game for today’s businesses, and a formula for disaster for the future. Those who merely keep up are usually so caught up in meeting their day-to-day challenges that they can only worry about the future, while business innovators see the present as a stepping stone they can use to get a bigger and better future. A new world is taking shape before our eyes, and no company can afford to hide out in the old familiar places. While it’s important to stay abreast of changes and update your company as new technologies and developments unfold, it’s just as crucial to distance yourself from the competition and embrace a forwardthinking mindset that will enable you to turn tomorrow’s opportunities into today’s profits.

Daniel Burrus is the author of six books including the international best Technotrends. He is one of the world’s leading technology forecasters and business strategists, and has established a worldwide reputation for accurately predicting technologydriven
trends and their impact on the world of business.