Competitive Actions in Financial Crisis

1. Competitive actions must be supported with personal and organization resources. The most important of these resources are your creativity and the commitment of your employees.

2. The greater the scope of the actions, the greater the expenditure of resources. Resources should be available before action is undertaken.

3. Quick victory is the aim of competitive action. If victory is delayed, then vision becomes dim and enthusiasm drains away. If a struggle is continued for a long time without results, the strength of people’s determination will be exhausted.

4. When your creativity is dulled, your commitment dampened, your enthusiasm drained, and your financing depleted, competitors will take advantage of your weakness. When that happens, no executive, however wise, can prevent the decline of his career and loss of business.

5. While we know that hastily executed competitive operations can be troublesome, we have never seen successful competitive operations that wasted time. A successful competitive operation need not be complicated. To win, do simple things well…and quickly.



6. Executives who cannot balance risk with opportunity cannot profit in today’s business environment. Speed and innovation are the keys. Only those who are comfortable with the pitfalls and ambiguities of rapid execution can profitably manage new products and services. Only those who appreciate the knowledge gained from quick failure can achieve lasting success.

7. A skillful executive does not hesitate to utilize the resources at his command. He engages the competition immediately. He gains precious information from direct contact with his constituents. He does not waste time talking to corporate staff people who are farther removed from the competitive situation than he is. Being one step ahead of the competition is worth more than anything else. Gaining that step is the wise executive’s greatest desire.

8. A skillful executive builds the strongest possible team from the people in his company. He lets the competition show him how to serve better. In this way he is always increasing his constituent share. He builds his fortune through outstanding performance.

9. When an executive fails in competitive operations, it is due to overdependence on internal knowledge or folk wisdom. Folk wisdom is that body of unchallenged assumptions which everyone thinks to be true. Folk wisdom exists in every organization. The value of information offered by people who do not know constituents personally is almost zero, particularly in times of rapid change. Decisions made far from the constituents impoverish the executive.

10. Timely, accurate information is the lifeblood of successful competition. When obtained from outside sources, information is expensive. Expensive information wastes the company’s resources.

11. The most expensive information is that which is out-of-date. Seventy percent of the value of information is gained from timeliness. Resources spent to gather yesterday’s data are wasted. Maintaining yesterday’s data consumes large portions of available money and manpower.

12. The wise executive harvests timely information from his constituents and his competitors. One new product idea generated from discussion with a real customer is worth any number of ideas generated by consultants or headquarters staff.

13. In order to dominate, you and your people – from top to bottom – must be passionate about the services you provide and the products you represent.

14. To capture the spirits of your employees, you must give them clearly defined and valuable rewards. You should reward the group fro gaining customer share. But people should also be able to get rewards based on individual merit.

15. When someone provided outstanding service to a customer, reward him openly. Make his service an example for others to follow by providing sure and meaningful rewards for excellence.

16. Treat your employees well; train them thoroughly. The success of the organization is built on the individual success of its members.

17. The important thing in competitive operations is quick results, not prolonged activity. The executive who understands how to excite his people and dominate a marketplace will become the foundation for his company.