The new rules of competitive advantage

This is your moment.

If you are a market leader with stagnant market share, this is your moment.

If you are a second or third-tier challenger, this is your moment.

If you are a start-up, an entrepreneur or small family business, this is your moment.

This is the moment when old paradigms are redundant and where the game will be won through curiosity, anticipation, speed and agility.

This is the moment when previously forecasted realities can not be relied upon and when the variability of economic impact will create new pathways for brands and businesses that can learn, adapt and out-think their competitors. This is the moment, your moment to lead through the uncertainty and reset, reposition and revitalise your business.

This is the moment when competitive advantage is not marked by what you have but instead, by what you do with it.

You know that moment when you approach the veterinary surgery and as soon as your dog realises where he/she is, it slams on the brakes? The ensuing struggle of being dragged, sliding across the floor quivering and cowering, you know that moment? Because it feels like the last 12 weeks in Australian business to me.

You keep reassuring your dog, but utilising the paradigm formed by past experiences, the dog continues to resist. This leads me to wonder, what our past experiences are really doing for us now. The potential for loss is being met with inaction, indecision and a stifling lack of leadership.

The reality of our situation sends the nation's socio-economic elite into disbelief as they dig those fingers deeper into the ears of reason.

What a canvas for change, an opportunity to reshuffle the decks, and a chance to make a significant change for your business, it’s market position and economic prosperity.

Change the paradigm, shift the possibilities.

Just so everyone is tuned in, right now, even with JobKeeper and JobSeeker in place, as at May 29th, the increase in demand for Food Relief Services via Foodbank is up 78%. That's more than 1 million Australians in need of help, many of whom are vulnerable students and the newly unemployed. Yes right now!. (Thanks to Brianna Casey for this sobering update - a link to donate is below)

When I mention such stats to the executive teams of Australian Businesses, it genuinely shocks them. Then, how is it that these executives are going to navigate new terrain, they haven’t taken the time to understand?

And herein lies the opportunity to change the game and for a real reset of competitive advantage. Why? Because the rules are changing every day.

In the first two weeks of this, I myself got it wrong, way wrong. I was all stunned, shocked and outraged by the deafening silence from Big Business in offering any reassurance to Australians, no matter how symbolic. 

In hindsight, I knew better than to expect this. How was it that the old paradigms, “The Persona Dartboards” that hang on the walls of marketing departments, would suddenly come alive and morph themselves into empathetic connection with customers they broadly and inaccurately describe?

This is where there is a significant opportunity for competitive advantage, done differently with different thinking.

I said it in my post 12 weeks ago, “There’s nothing better than a race where 90% of your competitors stop running” and now I would add that maybe the race your competitors are running is taking them further away from relevance with the very same customers you compete with them for.

I swear in many ways it feels like a lot of businesses are lining up on the front lines of battle, armed with Nerf Guns and Super Soakers. Don’t be that business.

You see right now in this current market and in the next 3 to 5 years ahead, it matters not who you were, or who you think you are. What does matter is how you behave, how you show up, how you out-think, out-manoeuvre and how you “out-care” your competitors.

I said in a webinar 70 days ago that it was important that “We ensure that our ladder is not up against a burning wall”.

The burning wall is symbolic for any practice, behaviour or way of doing business that will be redundant in the future - the old paradigms that no longer serve you or your customers.

There are many businesses out still driving their trusty old sales vehicles, the ones with high mileage, heavy steering, bald tyres, dodgy brakes and inept suspension systems ploughing forward as if nothing has changed.

This is the opportunity. This is the time to find meaningful and tangible ways of building organisational resilience, a time when having a kanban board can no longer serve as the delusion of agility, a time when you need to rethink customer insight and understand the new variables of concern, change the way you sell products or even the products you sell. This is the time to get off that burning ladder and compete. The opportunity to seize this moment, by actually being present in the realities of this moment rather than the false and temporary comfort of the past. 

The rules have changed, and they will continue to change in the weeks, months and years ahead. Tune in, take your advantage, make this your moment.

If you are in a position to, please donate to Foodbank here: every dollar provides 2 meals to someone in need.