Remember the Trojan Horse? This military strategy used by the Greeks won for them a long running battle with Troy. The Greeks loaded a wooden horse with troops secretly placed inside, and the Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory trophy while the Greeks pretended to sail away in defeat. At night, the Greek soldiers came out of their hiding place, and opened the gates of Troy for the rest of the Greek army who had sailed back during the night. The Greeks decisively ended the 10 year war with Troy with a surprise strategy that was both innovative and disruptive.
Is it our objective to defeat the competition in battle? Should we be thinking about the battle with competitors at all? Often we get pulled into pricing battles to maintain or build our market share, a strategy commonly used by some Japanese companies. When we are focused on price, we are losing the battle. Much wasted energy is expended in an effort to better understand the competition.
We need to be constantly focused on innovating new and better products… but for what purpose? A winning strategy incorporates a complete understanding of the customer need, defining it in detailed terms, mapping it to all our work processes, and ultimately delivering an outstanding customer experience. This is true whether our product or service is considered a commodity or an innovative new concept,
When we focus on delivering an outstanding customer experience, we win by creating long term value through customer praise and continued support. The competition won’t even know what hit them!
