Chapter 9. Sour Spots
The main reason that the big losers did not do as well as the big winners is that they were in sour spots. By a sour spot, I mean that they were in competitive spaces occupied by other firms offering similar or equally good products and services. The big losers were in inhabited territory. (See Chapter 10, “Rigidity.”) The products and services that they offered did not stand out as special—they did not confer distinctive benefits that customers could not obtain from other sources. (See Chapter 11, “Ineptness.”) This chapter explores what it means to be in a spot that is noticeably inferior to your competitors and highly contested.
When you are in a sour spot, you are in a conspicuously poorer position than competitors. Your ...
Get Big Winners and Big Losers: The 4 Secrets of Long-Term Business Success and Failure now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
