Keeping your enemies closer
3 ways your toughest competitors are also your greatest tutors
History has shown us some monumental rivalries—the fight that shook the world between undefeated champions Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali, the century-long feud between automotive giants General Motors and Ford, and the great ideological battle between the competing visions of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. These stories are memorable for the spectacle of their contention, watching real-life legends unfold in newspapers and television broadcasts and NASDAQ closings. But rivalries, both those of epic proportions and the more prosaic, everyday challenges, are also useful in what they teach us about the nature of competition and effective strategy. Some of the best business lessons can come from your harshest opponents. So here, we’ve taken a look at infamous rivalries to assemble the three most important lessons you can learn from your competitors.
1. Make yourself valuable
It’s difficult to mention the topic of all-consuming, life-long rivalries without turning to the story of Thomas Edison and Nikolai Tesla. The story has all the makings of an epic feud—a mentorship gone sour, practicality versus unbridled creation, and live-stagings of elephant electrocutions to highlight the folly of the competitor’s product (Tesla’s alternating-current electrical system).1 Most of the scientific community is in agreement as to who the more brilliant scientist was—Tesla had an eidetic memory, a seemingly infinite capacity for innovation, and the erratic, zany personality you’d expect of a forward-thing genius. By contrast, most of Edison’s inventions were simpler, pioneered less-disruptive technology, and were being developed by others simultaneously. And here’s where the lesson comes in. You won’t be better than your competitors at everything. In fact, you don’t even have to better at the things your field deems important. What you do have to figure out is how to make whatever strengths you have valuable. Today we remember Edison’s practicality, plethora of useful inventions, and the way he streamlined scientific processes more than Tesla’s superior intellect and innovation.
2. Know when to strike
Speaking of competitive edge, the animal kingdom, where loss often means literal death, is awash with colourful, usually gruesome encounters. Take, for example, the battle between giant hornets and honeybees. A single hornet can kill 40 bees a minute and a small gang can lay waste to an entire bee colony. They are equipped with razor-sharp teeth and their body armour is impenetrable to stings. Knowing they don’t stand a chance against their superior predator, honeybees have developed an interesting defence. They calmly let the hornet enter their home and begin wreaking death and havoc. Then the colony slowly starts to amass and vibrate, gradually raising their collective temperature to 117 degrees Fahrenheit. The hornet can withstand up to 115 degrees but the honeybee can tolerate up to 118. Through patience and careful planning they lock their enemy in and roast them alive.2 We don’t expect you to literally set fire to the competition but knowing when you’re beat, when it’s best to lie low, pool your resources, and wait for the opportune moment, can be your greatest asset.
3. Don’t lose sight of the real prize
In the late 19th century, the Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola companies emerged, offering a very similar product. They shared a competitive relationship of near-biblical proportions, each attempting to become America’s favorite soft drink. They filed lawsuits and employed marketing strategies in which the prominent goal was simply to “beat the other guy.” Both companies were so blinded by their ‘cola wars’ that they missed a pretty big development in the beverage industry and, in the 90s, an Austrian company exploded American markets with an entirely new product—Red Bull.3 It wasn’t until this century that Coke and Pepsi would acquire products that would even begin to rival Red Bull in the energy drink market. Thus bringing us to the final lesson your enemies can teach you—remembering that the real goal is to modernize and adapt in order to serve the industry in which you operate, not to beat the competition.
Those you deem competitors are called such for very good reasons—perhaps they are talented or well-resourced or have a strong industry presence. Whatever the case, there is much to be learned from businesses which have faced or are currently grappling with very similar challenges. So watch closely.
