Pearls of advice by Sun Tzu for challenging competitors

Sun Tzu never fails. His ideas and advice on military affairs can be easily incorporated in your business strategy as you meet up with competitors in the market place. Let us go through pearls of advice in sequential manner:

Firstly it is always better to strike up alliance or friendship with business competitors. Rather peaceful and this leads to the concept of winning without fighting. When forced to fight take on the challenger only after going through war games in the corporate headquarters where you sense victory in the drawing board. In sum, fight the battle that you are destined to win.

There are three caveats: one is the terrain of market place must be advantageous for you to mount a battle. Two, you must adopt a wait and see approach to find out whether position of your opponent is weakening and his staff morale is evaporating. Three, find out the spots of least resistance which you can pounce upon. Good example is after sales care where most businesses err on their judgement.

Once you are in the game, find out the easiest way to knock out your opponent. For example giving large trade discounts to distributors can upset his apple cart. This works well because it makes the battle one of the easiest to win as the opponent cannot match up with the quantum of discount you are rolling out. This will undoubtedly sap the energy of the opponent and lower the staff morale of the opponent. As you gain the first victory your position improves tremendously.

Once you are in the thick of competition, ensure the favourable position attained by you remains well-protected. Now mount further attacks on the competitor in his distribution networks because these areas would overnight become soft targets. By this time either, the opponent marshals more staff and resources to defend his position or folds out. If he opts for the former, turn back and come out with a value proposition at affordable price to break the ability of your opponent in his coveted customer retention.

Always keep in your mind never to attack well-defended areas or where staff morale is high but go for least-guarded areas manned by poorly trained marketing staff. Put it the other way, find the pivot of least resistance and march on!

 

Cheers!

 

Muthu Ashraff Rajulu

Business Strategist

Mobile: + 94 777 265677

E-mail:   cosmicgems@gmail.com

Blog:   Business Strategist