Playing hardball is a business manoeuvre against a single competitor or a group of competitors in a particular sector or region. But playing tough guy is generally adopted as business manoeuvre against a singer opponent. Both are of great use in business warfare. More follows:
Generally playing hardball is exercised by a business that is strong in real sense or perceives it to be a strong over competitors in a particular industry. Playing hardball requires among other things, the choice of right business manoeuvre that pins down and at the end cows down opponent seamlessly. A good example is using price-cutting as blanket instrument targeting one or more businesses in one go. There is a caveat: the imposer must have the capability of sustaining it for a considerable period.
Playing tough guy on the other hand relates to hammering, generally a weaker opponent to force him to submit to the imposer within a narrow time span. Ostensibly, the imposer cannot use this posture with a strong opponent due to the fact that he has neither capability nor ability to sustain it for a long time. There could be unexpected boon too. Mowing down a weak party could be a warning to others not to mesh around.
But what happens if the weak opponent is ingenuous enough to challenge the imposer or a would be imposer using an innovative idea in manufacturing and/or marketing a product, the like of which is not available in the imposer’s portfolio.
Peter Sellers film “The mouse that roared” shows how a weak could use an innovative stratagem to bring down a much more powerful counterparty!
Cheers!
Muthu Ashraff Rajulu
Business Strategist
Mobile: + 94 777 265677
E-mail: cosmicgems@gmail.com
Blog: Business Strategist
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