Don’t Criticize; Analyze

My father once gave me this sage advice about evaluating your competition: “Don’t criticize; analyze.” We like to pump ourselves up by criticizing our competition – whether in sports, business, or even family relationships. We meticulously note all of their mistakes while patting ourselves on the back that we have not been so foolish. Business X didn’t pursue a presence in that market like we did, so they’re going to miss out on all this growth. Cousin Bob looked a little chunky at the family reunion – I bet I looked great by comparison!

The problem is, we get so caught up in looking for their flaws that we never get around to noticing the things they are doing right that we might be doing wrong.

In the short term, focusing on others’ failings gives us a temporary sense of security and superiority, but in the long term it prevents us from honestly assessing the market and the things we can do to improve our own performance in it. For this reason, I believe it is more important to find out where your competition is succeeding than where they are failing.

Think about it like this: if your competitor failed in a certain market, you might think it represents an opening for your company to swoop into that market and succeed where they could not. But if you rush in blindly without assessing your competitor’s strengths and your own weaknesses, you might find yourself in the same position. Perhaps Business X is a locally-owned company that does best in markets without a lot of big national company presence, and the market in which they failed is dominated by big national firms. It’s a great opportunity if you can go toe-to-toe with the big nationals, but it’s a terrible opportunity if your firm is also weak in these types of markets. Honestly assessing Business X’s successes could help you determine if this is a good market for your company, and avoid a potentially costly mistake.

So how do you conduct an assessment of your own and your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses? The first step is asking the right people the right questions. Have you ever asked the top producer in your company what makes them special or different from the other employees? Maybe you already know, and that’s why you hired them in the first place. But ask them how they stay on top. How do they use their time? What are the things they do every day to get and keep themselves ahead of everyone else?

I would also suggest studying successful people in your industry. If you can, ask them the same questions as your top producer. Read articles written by CEOs of similar firms. Do a little research on your own, and try to come up with a few examples from the news of successes and failures by your competition. Most people would not equate sports and research, but football is a sport where researching the competition is practically an art form. Pro football quarterbacks spend countless hours watching film from games – their own games, their competition’s games, and also film of other great quarterbacks and throughout history. They study every aspect of these other players’ approaches to the game, and then they do the most important part: they incorporate the things they’ve learned into their own game.

Next time you read about a competitor’s struggles, take a moment to reflect on the company as a whole. What are they doing well, and how does this struggle fit into their overall performance in the market? You might just find some ideas to improve your own firm’s performance.

Have a great weekend,
Ro