Five Killer Strategies for Trouncing the Competitionby George Stalk, Jr. and Rob Lachenauer -Rajendra Bahadur Thapa -Rajib Kumar Hyoju -Sudip Joshi -Sudan Kayastha MsTIM – 2011 Tribhuwan Univeristy, Institute of Engineering. Pulchowk Campus, Nepal Winner in business play rough and don’t apologize for it. 7/30/2012 2 . with its emphasis on squishy things like corporate culture and the coddling of customers. We will the playbook for a dog-eat-dog world.Hardball Management thinking has gone soft. The Hardball Manifesto • • • • • Focus relentlessly on competitive advantage. Exploit people’s will to win. 7/30/2012 3 . Know the caution zone. Avoid attacking directly. Strive for “extreme” competitive advantage. • Eg: Transportation cost of reduction of wall -mart 7/30/2012 4 .Focus relentlessly on competitive advantage • Hardball players strive to widen the performance gap between themselves and competitors. there’s something far more important than competitive advantage. “Study us all you want” 7/30/2012 5 . the hardball competitor has an economic system that is unassailable.Strive for “extreme” competitive advantage • To hardball players. • Often. 7/30/2012 6 . • History shows that a military force must be several times more than enemies to win in direct attract.Avoid attacking directly. • Victory often belongs to those who want it the most. We saw. Southwest spirit is you. We kicked tail. “Spirit is engaging our minds and our hearts and our souls to do the right thing. Training Video Advertizement 7/30/2012 7 .” We came.Exploit people’s to win • Hardball requires guts as well as smarts. than competitors would ever dare. legal and accounting counsel to determine what they can and can’t do. whether established by law or social conventions. 7/30/2012 8 .Know the caution zone. The hardball player ventures closer to the boundary. stealing trade secrets. not too mean. the law. Well. or predatory pricing. let us stress once again that hardball is not about breaking. The nicest part of playing hardball is watching your competitors squirm. It is not about crooked accounting. 7/30/2012 9 . • • • • Does it break any existing laws? Is the action good for the customer? Will competitors be directly hurt by it? Will the action touch a nerve in special-interest groups? For ALL: At the risk of repetition. or even bending. breaching contracts. It’s not about being mean.Know the caution zone. Contd. The Hardball Strategies • • • • • Devastate rivals’ profit sanctuaries. Plagiarize with pride. • Unleash massive and overwhelming force. 7/30/2012 10 . Deceive the competition. • Raise competitors’ costs. Devastate rivals’ profit sanctuaries Flooding the market with advertising or making across-the board price cuts Most effective strikes are surgical VacuCorp VS SweepCo’s Business Profit sanctuary for sweepCo’s was canisters type of vacuum cleaner revenue profit . Knowledge is the key to devastating a competitor’s profit Sanctuary Competitor’s costs and profitabilityby category. adjust prices to inflict the most pain.Devastate rivals’ profit sanctuaries contd. by geography and by account This will allow you to hone your attack strategy. Need to be alert to the legal limits of pricing strategies There is fine but real line between aggressive and predatory pricing Attack on your competitor’s profit sanctuary is liable to provoke a strong response . The other airlines that have tried-and failed –to copy southwest Ford did copy honda’s program and improved upon it. marketing it aggressively to new-car buyers .Plagiarize with pride Hardball player doesn’t fear or feel hesitate to steal any good ideas they see as long as it isn’t nailed down by a robust patent Hardball plagarism involves much more than appropriating a good ideas. they improve it on Simply replicating the details isn’t enough Eg. or to gain any other kind of competitive advantage Software company will announce “vaporware” that isn’t ready for prime time. In auto industry. Eg. some with custom specifications .Deceive the competition Hardball players will mislead rivals to buy time. Wausau Papers Wausau would offer next-day service to its distributors in the major Midwestern cities and encourage them to order small quantities. prototypes are sometime doctored up to throw off the competition. cutting and repackaging them as part of its overall offering . Press release –that the company had been able to speed deliveries by holding large inventories of finished goods and by working long hours But the company didn’t signal that it had also undertaken a major shift in strategy and operations. wausau began buying commodity papers in rolls from its competitors.Deceive the competition contd. invest heavily in product quality.Unleash massive and overwhelming force Hardball player prefer the indirect attack.corn and tortilla chips Its expansion into cookies and crackers New eagle brand salty snacks try to capture the market of Frito lays Firto’s lays concentrates company’s energy. sometimes they beat their competitors with the polar opposite Eg Eagle snack (Anheuser-Busch ) Vs Firto lays(Roger Enrico) Firto lays.Salty snacks-potato. better service and low price . and came with up superior offering-better chips. primarily when the complexities of a business introduce cost that can be misallocated. Large volume differences between a company’s highest and lowest selling products or services -as was the case of federal-mogul and JpI Rising your competitors’ costs works well in certain situations. Ex. .Raise competitors’ cost Successfully driving up a competitor’s costs without his knowing is on of the marks of a true hardball competitor. • Plagiarize with pride.Summary The Manifesto Relearn the fundamental behaviors of winning: • Focus relentlessly on competitive advantage. • Strive for “extreme” competitive advantage. 7/30/2012 18 . • Exploit people’s will to win. • Unleash massive and overwhelming force. • Raise competitors’ costs. The Strategies Deploy these in bursts of ruthless intensity: • Devastate rivals’ profit sanctuaries. • Deceive the competition. • Avoid attacking directly. • Know the caution zone.
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