When asked about Google’s competition in the smartphone arena for example, he replied saying: “I don’t really think about it that way.”
However, further explaining his stance, he inspired us with what he feels of competition.
“But I feel my job is mostly getting people not to think about our competition. In general I think there’s a tendency for people to think about the things that exist. Our job is to think of the thing you haven’t thought of yet that you really need. And by definition, if our competitors knew that thing, they wouldn’t tell it to us or anybody else. I think just our strengths, our weaknesses, our opportunities are different than any other company.”
Source : Business Insider
Writer’s Response:
Many times, businesses get too obssessed with competition and tries to overtake the company in competition with by improving their products, giving out better services to their consumers. However, when thinking about competition, it is easy to lose focus of the company’s core offering, moving towards a extremely market oriented and boring product, therefore compromising innovation and sight of the actual market. Companies have to stay focus in what they are doing and do what they are best at, getting minimal input from competition in order to stay different and value add to the whole marketspace. This however applies largely to companies like Google, who seeks innovation and breakthroughs in the industry.
Similarly to Apple in Steve Job’s era where Apple has a mind of its own, totally disregarding competition and fully focusing on their products. That was where innovation is sparked and have the ability to inspire the consumers. Strong company image and values were what lured consumers into Apple. However, sadly to speak, Tim Cook has got almost none of these notions in his way of leadership. Introduction of iPad mini was a excellent example where the product is made because of the market, not the users.
