P1: OTA/XYZ P2: ABC
c10 JWBT144/Gordon September 25, 2009 17:42 Printer Name: Courier Westford, Westford, MA
Plan for the War with Your Competitors
take market share from us, how to win purchase orders, how to copy our
products and services, how to take our best ideas and use them against us
(best practices), how to lure our key customers and employees away from us.
In fact, they had a responsibility to their stakeholders to achieve competitive
advantages at our expense.
What are the consequences for your company when your industry has
intense competition? Price wars, nasty competitor behavior, and thin profit
margins. As I mentioned, patents don’t necessarily keep competitors out of
the market. One of our more aggressive competitors copied our patented
products, even to the point of including our engineering mistakes. We tried
to keep control of our products, but to no avail. Determined competitors like
this one know that most companies will avoid costly litigation if at all possible,
even if it means not contesting patent infringements.
Good and Bad Industries
Based on the opportunity you identified, you will be competing in a good,
marginal, or bad industry. Some industries are more favorable than others. It is
to your advantage to understand what characterizes good and bad industries,
2
and to factor that understanding into your decision to start a business in that
particular industry.
One way to size up the potential of an industry is to understand where it is
in its life cycle. All industries