Competition

inspired by one of my mentors, Thomas Ewe.

Competition; in the truest sense of that word, we have finite. But if we extend the definition of that word, to include anything or anyone that has the ability to stop us; then we have a ton; (i.e. Challenges.)

And so, for each that is identified; through discovery or retrospection; we will need a strategy to either mitigate or eliminate. And to do that effectively; we need ‘Clarity’ of our goals and the flexibility to ‘Change’; in essence; to learn.

Only by having ‘Clarity’ can we act decisively. And only by embracing ‘Change’ can we act purely to achieve our goals and not tinted by anything in the past.

‘Change’ can be painful; but it is the only way to get us from here to where we are going. So we embrace it. With that in place, we can pursue the course of continuous improvement. It works like this: We look into the past to see what didn’t work, identify how we want it to work, change and move forward to apply. Central tenet.

But this is a ‘Reactive’ in nature. Moving forward, we will need to move in ‘Proactive’ mode.

What does that mean? ‘Clarity’ and ‘Change’ still feature prominently, but instead of ‘Looking back to see what didn’t work’; we ‘look forward to see what we can do better’.

Taking the ‘Competition’ concept one-step further; we compete against ourselves!

To implement, think like a competitor. “If I were a competitor of myself today; what would I do?” How can I out-compete myself today? Is it faster implementation? Is it better service? Is it closer relationship with customers? How do I get better sales result, better communication; better credibility? How can we make my services obsolete in 6 months?

Then it is those we implement. We will ruthlessly compete against ourselves (not among ourselves!!) but ourselves as a team, a company. And since we embrace change; risk taking comes naturally. First have ‘Clarity’; then take the risk, take the responsibility and execute.

The above seem logical and simplistic, even commonsensical; but few truly live by it; hampered by their inability to see that ‘Change’ is such an important factor.

‘Change’ we embrace; 'Clarity' we pursue; improvement, continuous.