New Rules

The revolution in information and communications technologies has fundamentally and permanently altered the domestic and international business landscape.

One of the most far-reaching consequences of these changes is a massive shift in the competitive balance of power.

For the first time in the history of commerce, five-person boutiques can take on multinational giants and WIN!

In one fell swoop, competition has become more ubiquitous, intense, unpredictable, democratic and, in one word, difficult.

And it is going to get tougher to generate competitive advantage by simply doing the same old things a little bit better.

Technological changes have ushered in an era of radical strategic repositioning.

Competitive advantages and profits will belong to innovators who transcend the existing parameters of competition.

Strategic repositioning forces competitors to play by the new rules of the game, rules that you yourself have largely devised.

By establishing these rules, you knock your competition off balance and create a temporary monopoly over the critical success factors for your industry.

Strategic Repositioning – Three Varieties

1. Create an entirely new industry.

Arguably the purest form of strategic repositioning is to construct an entirely new industry from scratch. But if you’re going to defy conventional wisdom-be committed!

Having a brilliant, timely and powerful business concept is a terrific starting point, but it is not enough to guarantee success.

You must look at the value you are offering and the infrastructure required to bring the concept to life. Trying to impose a radically innovative new concept on an existing infrastructure won’t work.

2. Reinvent how an existing industry operates.

The opportunities for creating new competitive battlegrounds are by no means limited to developing entirely new products or attacking new market segments.

Equally rewarding are the opportunities to those innovative enough to reinvent the way business is done within existing markets and industries.

Inevitably, your new formula will attract imitators. However, he who invents the new game and writes the first set of competitive ground rules usually stakes out a solid first place position; everyone else is relegated to playing catch-up.

3. Set the de facto world standard for an emerging industry that others are creating.

The next best thing to inventing a new industry outright is to create the standards everybody in that industry has to meet-or else.

This trick requires a heavy dose of luck, skill, and timing, but owning the DNA of your industry or market makes you “King (or Queen) of the Hill”-immediately!

Precisely because strategic repositioning goes against the grain of conventional business thinking, it will be increasingly important in both the current and future marketplace.

Leadership will be based on improvement that is not merely continuous and incremental but frequently nonlinear and exponential.

Years ago, much of this improvement was driven by technological change. But as old technologies become commonplace ones, a constant supply of ideas and approaches will be needed to gain competitive advantage.

Rather than slug it out for temporary advantage in well-defined markets, tomorrow’s winners will be creating entirely new industries, opportunities, and competitive space for themselves.

The key issue is simply this: Competing for existing markets is rapidly becoming yesterday’s game.

If you aspire to make any kind of impact in the new world of business you must realize that you are really playing an altogether different game-competing for the future.

The future dictates new rules. If you don’t write them, someone else will!

To learn how to “Strategically Reposition” your company in today’s economy, fill out the coaching form on this page and I will personally ring you within 24 hours.

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