A common misconception that many business owners harbor is that competing with other companies is the best way to do business. While it’s possible to get results by focusing on competition, most businesses would achieve more promising results by focusing on innovation instead.
The more you focus on beating your competition, the more your business will start to resemble your competition. For most businesses, fighting over constantly shrinking margins is a losing battle. This is particularly true when the competition has more resources and greater market reach to begin with. Therefore, if you want to take your business to the next level, you should stop trying to compete and start innovating.
What Is Non-Disruptive Creation?
Companies that focus most of their efforts on remaining one step ahead of the competition are engaging in disruption. While disruption is a common strategy employed by companies, it is not the only way that markets are created. The alternative to disruption is non-disruptive creation, which is when companies focus on creating an entirely new market rather than carving a space for themselves in an already existing market.
One great example is Tony Robbins. Tony is considered the founder of the life coaching industry, which is now a $2 billion industry. Before Tony came along, only peak performance athletes and sportspeople received coaching. Tony single-handedly created a new market by applying the idea of coaching from sports to personal development. This didn’t involve disrupting an already existing industry. Rather, he founded a new market that added true value to the lives of millions. As a result, Tony is still considered a guru in the industry of life coaching.
According to Tony, “If you do what everyone else does, and you do it better than everybody else, you get a tiny competitive advantage. But if you do something no one else is doing in your space and focus on offering overwhelming value, if you create a blue ocean, you get a gigantic advantage.”
Also, don’t make the mistake of focusing on just technology innovation. Ideally, you should focus on value innovation, which may or may not involve new technology. Your goal should be to alter your product or service so that it makes the lives of your consumers more fun, productive, easier, or meaningful. Once you’ve figured out how to do this, you can turn to technology to figure out how to best leverage and raise awareness about your products and services.
As you can see, innovation is arguably the best way to succeed in the business world. For more information about the importance of innovating rather than competing, don’t hesitate to contact us.
