If I stop competing, won’t I miss out?

"Me vs Everyone"

While reading one of the articles, I came across this question put up by a student to one of the business leaders. The latter aptly answered the question giving various inputs on introspection, skill-building, and prioritizing one’s goals, to the former. One thing that he said that perfectly summed up the answer was: “It is the fear of being judged and fear of failure that holds one back from trying out new things and going out of the box.”

Though the student’s question looks simple in terms of one’s urge to compete in this sharp-edged competitive world, it puts light on the behavioral attitude of the millennials that psychologists term as ‘FOMO’. Fear of missing out or FOMO is a tendency where one constantly compares oneself with others and wants to be everywhere with a fear that he/she might miss something important, and thus make him/her feel left out from the rest.

Although this attitude is good to some extent, if kept for long, would negatively influence a person and hold him/her back in pursuing important things that matter. In a constant rush to try out everything, know everything (even if something is not relevant), to be at every place, makes one rustic and out of charm. One loses its identity and the obvious oomph factor that differentiates one from the others. Society is also to blame, for the behavior, which leaves no opportunity to pull one down if one tries to rise above the rest. Instead of giving moral support to the dejected ones, the so-called intellectuals of the society take turns to bury him/her further down. Thus, the millennials, out of fear and out of failure never think of venturing out and making their own identity.

Going back to the question and relating it to the current business environment, I recall one of Jack Ma’s quotes: “Instead of focusing on competitors, focus on customers. You will be successful”. If we try to look into today’s market, we see a continuous war among companies for the market share. Ugly cold wars between companies on baseless issues have made the market filled with products that serve no good to the customers. In the name of innovation, companies are providing just some enhancements to the existing product and are charging sky high for them. Concepts of customer satisfaction and customer service and have taken a backseat. Price-driven profit is mostly moving the businesses now.

SnapDeal’s lost deal

Let us take an example of one of the e-commerce companies in India, SnapDeal. When it started in 2010, Flipkart was already been there in the market for more than three years. SnapDeal’s business model was a copy of Flipkart's business model in many ways, starting from the initial inventory model (which both changed into the marketplace model in the coming years) to the revenue generation model (based on % commission on the sales of the seller). The latter enjoyed being placed at the second position in the e-commerce market for years but never really displayed zeal to stand out. Snapdeal, instead of focusing on improving on their logistics and other ecosystems, continued following FlipKart in every aspect of the business through time and the result is known to all of us.

Every business is different from others in all aspects. The business model of one company can never be copied successfully in another company. This is a lesson that SnapDeal needs to learn. “First they copied FlipKart and failed, now they have started copying us”, said Radhika Aggarwal, co-founder of ShopClues, in a recent interview. (ShopClues is the largest marketplace providing a platform for small retailers and customers for non-branded products.)

With very little knowledge of how businesses run, my opinion is that “Competition should not be only focused on making a profit; the focus should be on providing better customer experiences and services”.

How Apple’s iPhone became everyone’s apple of the eye?

The market was full of products from Nokia and Motorola when Steve Jobs first announced iPhone in 2007. Nokia and Motorola, with their good line of product offerings, were the market leaders in the mobile phone segment. They had been providing mobile phones with almost similar functions across devices, to the consumer market. It was an arduous task for any company to compete against them and give them a shake.

Few companies like LG and Panasonic started by offering products similar to Nokia and Motorola but they struggled to survive. Apple, on the other hand, had different plans. Instead of focusing on the competitors, they started building a product that the world had never witnessed. And under the leadership of Steve Jobs, Apple introduced iPhone to the world. People went crazy over it and overnight iPhone was on everyone’s mind. iPhone was different. It was a piece of art. Who would not want to flaunt holding a beautiful-looking device?

Although the question here arises that, what did Apple do to stand out? The answer is that they were perfectly able to read the consumer’s mind and (obviously) the market of that time. Their focus was on providing a product with a great user interface to the customers. They did not even look at what competitors were doing. They wanted to provide a piece of art to the customers. As said earlier, their focus was to fulfill customers' demands.

Conclusion

A friend of mine once said, “It’s competition from within that matters. We lose out more once we stop competing against us”. She defined competition in very simple yet thoughtful words. Challenging and pushing yourself constantly to the boundaries would not only help one develop unique skills but also make one stand confidently amongst others. Competition in business is no different. Companies should think of different and unique ways to serve customers. Merely copying others would not do well in the long run. SnapDeal’s case is the perfect example of it. Apple became the most valued company once they started to think different. (Think Different is Apple’s marketing slogan).

“If you compete you miss out, but if you stand out, you compete.”

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