Business is Not War: The Case for Competition Over Combat
At some point, every executive is advised to read Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. While the text offers timeless lessons on strategy, applying them philosophically to business strategy is a mistake. As Joel Kurtzman argues in Common Purpose: How Great Leaders Get Organizations to Achieve the Extraordinary, business is not a battlefield. We don’t have enemies; we have rivals.
“One company or firm succeeds against another not by attacking that company but by satisfying its own clients’ needs.” — Joel Kurtzman
The Zero-Sum Fallacy
Militaries are built for destruction. During the Second World War, Operation Overlord was designed to dismantle an opposing force on the beaches of Normandy. In that context, victory is a zero-sum game: one side's gain is the other's total loss.
Business, however, is additive. Your customer cares significantly less about your competitor than you do. They aren't looking for you to defeat a rival; they are looking for you to solve their specific problem. When a company becomes obsessed with its competitors, it begins to mirror them, losing its unique edge and its connection to the customer in the process.
The Innovation Trap
Seeking merely to destroy the competition is counterproductive. Competition should be a catalyst that challenges your company to be more innovative, more price-sensitive, and more efficient.
When marketing and communications teams focus too much on responding to a rival’s latest move, they stop leading the conversation. They shift from a visionary stance to a reactive stance. The communications team is the primary architect and gatekeeper for your company’s messaging; if your messaging is purely defensive or aggressive toward a rival, you’ve already lost the attention of your customer.
Audit Your Strategy: Are You Building or Battling?
Ask yourself and your team these four critical questions to determine if your focus has drifted:
Metric of Success: Is our goal purely to take market share, or are we focused on improving overall revenue and attracting new customers?
Target Audience: Are our daily conversations centered on the customer’s needs or our rival’s tactics?
Messaging Intent: Are we spending our budget attacking a competitor’s flaws or promoting our own product's unique value?
The Learning Curve: What can we learn from our competitors’ successes to help us become a better, more resilient company?
Know Yourself and Your Rival: But Build Your Brand
The messaging developed by your marketing and communications teams sets the tone for your company’s future. It is the difference between a brand that feels desperate and one that feels dominant. Focus on building a business, not taking down a rival. In the end, the market isn't a zero-sum game; it's an opportunity for excellence.
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