One of the biggest problem startups face is the fact that most of their competitors are already big multi-billion dollars corporation. The story of David and Goliath teaches us that the underdogs do win occasionally. However, in the real world, taking down a giant company is near to impossible.
So how can your startup rise to take down their bigger competitors? It has to play by a complete different set of rules. Think of these upstarts as perhaps two guys that are playing a deliberate game of chess – except in this case, the first guy (large corporation) has been playing the game for years, while the second guy (startup) is a newbie to chess and its rules. This simply means that the second guy would be at a disadvantage and normal competitive chess strategies won’t work.
Here are the principles that have the highest chance of success for those aspiring to take down big companies.
Build Something The Incumbent Doesn’t Have
Startups needs to build something that their bigger competitors doesn’t have. This is because the largest companies set the conditions for competition, and few beat their scope, experience and skills.
For example, Walmart was able to sell consumer goods (and achieve success) at their lowest possible prices using its remarkable hub-and-spoke distribution model. Other retailers that went up against them could not catch up… until Amazon.
Amazon did not try to create a better hub-and-spoke distribution model; instead, they choose to compete through a next-day, deliver-anywhere service. The results… It was a massive success.
Be Fast
Sure, large companies have great resources. However, another thing they have is big bureaucracy. In other words, they are slow – and clients hate slow service.
This is where you come in. Make sure your company is built with a culture of lightening fast speed: products delivered within days instead of weeks, emails responded within hours, and a team of empowered sales and technical personnel. This is your advantage, so you have to use it well.
Find Your Competitor’s Blind spots
Every industry has its own set of rules on how things are done. As a result, these companies consider it to be very important. However, these rules are nonsensical to an average startup and simply referred to as your competitor’s blind spot. Thus, you need to find out where large companies will never look to innovate.
Optimize for Power
For a startup to be a successful disruptor, they must create a series of dependencies where customers, suppliers and competitors all depend on them.
For example, to become a major player in the automobile market, Tesla didn’t just build electric cars – they also built a nationwide network of electric charging stations. This move ensured that the company strike symbiotic partnerships, set new standards of customer experience, and also make their competitors rely on them.
Taking down a big company is no mean feat. However, it’s happening more regularly today than any other time in history. While each principles shared on this blog post is powerful on their own, incorporating them together in an unstoppable sequence will put your biggest competitors within your reach.
