Direct competition is bad business. You can see it every day, and probably could name at least three businesses operating in your own industry that are guilty of its excesses. Positioned the same, targeting the same customers, providing the same product, priced at the same level: in a world of increasingly diverse tastes, needs and resources, there are few more reliable ways to ruin your business than to busy yourself in offer
ing up more of the same.
Direct competition destroys value. Eliminating significant distinctions between you and the next guy only guarantees that you’ll compete on price, which always turns into a race to the bottom – and a dash to see who can go broke first. On a grander scale, that destruction of value takes a serious toll on quality, markets and people.
