Seth Godin recently wrote a blog post “The Big Fish Theory” that made me think.
In the post he argues that in markets, the most dominant player has the distinct advantage that most consumers choose them by default as they want to be safe and it is not worth the time and effort to look at all the options available and make a choice. It’s easier and safer to choose the market leader. So, the decision in that case is not to go and be a big fish in a large market but to define the market such that you are the big fish. Then leverage the advantage that you get as the big fish to keep increasing the market ever so much.
Another way for me to look at this entire thing is as follows:
Never become the biggest fish in a market. Always be the challenger wanting to become the biggest fish in that market.
As soon as you achieve that, become the challenger in the next cycle of growth and so on and so forth.
Most organisations start becoming complacent once they become the big fish in the market and the default choice for their customers in the market. The hunger for growth diminishes, easy growth replaces the hard-won growth. This is usually when the business starts to experience decline and it takes a lot more energy and effort (exponential) than it would have if the complacency never set it.
Pepsi used this strategy really well to give Coke tough competition until it became complacent itself.
In order to continue to stay on your toes, find someone slightly bigger and stronger than you and challenge your team to get better than them and when you do, find someone stronger. The trick lies in picking your competition – not too tough, not too easy. Just tough enough. This keeps the team motivated and on their toes.
