After cricket, if there is one thing that unites Indians it’s the hustle/bustle of traffic situation in the country. Leaving the traffic hustle aside, there is one observation I have with regards to traffic and real world business competition that
You can never overtake if you are too close.
Be it a *normal* road or a highway, you can never ever overtake the vehicle in front of you if you stay too close (i.e. behind) them. You need that distance to jump past others.
Examples from Technology World
Look at Yahoo, AOL and every other company who were competing in search business. Google was never ever close to what they were doing – they just jumped past everybody.
Ditto with Salesforce vs. Siebel – similar offerings, but different route. Salesforce was never too close to Siebel in its offering.
Ditto with iPhone vs. Nokia/Samsung and Motorola of the world.
When you stay close to your competition, you are essentially following the same path, and maybe same speed (a little lesser perhaps?). You probably cross the same milestones and in the hustle of driving, fail to see a different picture.
By ‘staying close’, I mean ‘similar’ offering – i.e. A copy/paste of what your competition does + a little more.
And you don’t win by being similar. You win by being different.
Call it the blue ocean strategy, but that’s what Indian traffic teaches one to be – i.e. be different to stay ahead in the curve.
And all of this assuming that you know where you are headed to.
Agree/Disagree?
[Img credit : N-O-M-A-D (via Flickr)]
Good analogy and good observation.
Totally agree with you…
A killing observation … when did you get this wisdom? while got struck in a traffic? :-) … there is a say “Genius is nothing but sudden spark of intelligence”… i know you are intelligent … this post made it a genius…seriously i really loved the analogy.
Thats what i say Good Job, many startups are same, they copy strategies that are already in market and add few steps and they run business, This is good example, where one can put mind in unique way on how to make the total product to design in such a manner that it wont resemble any product thats already in market
Good Job
Sai Pothuri
good one…
Too Good!!! Sinha
In Bangalore I start planning for next signal as soon as I cross one.
One more thing I noticed was always keep an eye on them who were/are ahead of you as to know where are they getting stuck (you might fall into same trap at next signal.)
That is interesting. Staying too close requires you to be thinking similarly which will not allow disruptive innovation thus making the jump.
Thats a good analogy…
One more thing struck me while reading the post: while taking a turn – slow down, watch out, be cautious and take the turn, else u might get into an accident
Similarly, when ur company is changing direction (business model, product offering, service offering) – slow down, analyze all pros and cons and make the change
I think what you want to mention is the Red Ocean Strategy where you are targeting the market which is already bloody with too many players doing the same thing.
Blue Ocean is to do with Niche and innovative product like the twitter and ipod which was an innovation with no player currently in the market for the same.
So true, completely agree with the author regarding the same. Good observation, I must say
Good One Ashish. Completely agree with you on this. I like.
yes, if you are some distance behind, you cannot win by following the same strategies. You are forced to come up with something innovative, a different solution to the same problem.
Brilliantly put.
your metaphoric wit is amazing………!