When to Respond to the Competition

It has been a while since we’ve cited our Japanese sage, 17th-century Japanese samurai Miyamoto Musashi. Here’s what Musashi had to say about competitors from his time: “If you fix your eyes on details and neglect important things, your spirit will become bewildered, and victory will escape you.”

A significant percentage of executives find out about a competitor’s move only when it is announced.¹ That can send a company’s marketing round into an unfocused tizzy of overreaction and distract it from its most important focus: customers.

There’s big danger in overresponding to the competition, in focusing on secondary and urgent-feeling goals instead of on the primary objective. Those smaller issues become distractions, and distractions are a hindrance to achieving success.