Christopher Harris

With the SuperBowl coming up – it’s only natural for everyone to be thinking about football.  I’m not a huge football fan, but I enjoy watching the games regularly.  Living in San Diego now and growing up in Sacramento make me more of a 49ers and Chargers fan – but I really like to watch the Patriots play football.  You know why?  They play the game differently.

Again, I’m not a football nut, but by watching just a few games and listening to the commentary it’s clear they are looking at the game differently.  Here are the kinds of soundbites you hear from announcers and sportscasters during a Patriots game:

• Most teams will run in this situation, but you never know with the Patriots!
• No other team in the NFL will go for it here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Belichick does.
• This is a textbook passing down – but who knows with the Patriots.
• The problem with the Patriots is that you don’t know how they’re going to come after you.
• The Patriots say they need to control 2nd down this game.  Most people think that controlling 3rd down is important, but apparently 2nd down is key for the Patriots today.

These five quotes are all synonyms for the experts to tell us, “We have no idea how the Patriots play football.”  Think about this for a moment, it’s quite remarkable.  The team to beat in one of the most competitive and public industries in the world is having game after game recorded, transcribed, and broken down by the best adversaries in the world (other current and ex-NFL coaches)… and no one really seems to knows how they play football!

Does that strike you as odd?

This is obviously only an interesting fact because they seem to be winning – a lot.  The irony of the situation is that the other teams only seem to be convinced that they’re different now – after years of league domination – even though they had plenty to observe earlier.

This happens in other businesses too.  You see this when new competitors or product lines enter a market and do remarkably well.  Think Southwest Airlines, Walmart, Google, Amazon, and even “Reality TV.” When these companies first started, they really started by reexamining the rules of the game – and making changes to their offerings to exploit the opportunities available to them better than their competition.  The truly strange thing is that competitors will almost certainly chalk it up to something unique, external events, circumstances beyond their control, getting lucky, and a host of other reasons which constitute it not being their fault.

This is why you don’t really have to bother concealing your success most of the time.  Your competition won’t take you seriously until it’s too late for them to really do anything about it.  Once they do see what’s happening you’re already out there in the lead – with their customers!

Can you reexamine the dynamics of your business to take your competition by surprise?  Just about any industry is ripe for this kind of opportunity – but especially established ones where the existing players are all complacent to fight the battle in familiar terms.

Can you think of your business in a slightly different light?  Maybe one  that is more insightful to your customers demands or desires?  If so, you’ll be amazed at how long you’ll be ignored while you rack up the additional sales, additional satisfied customers, and additional market share while your competition is making excuses for themselves!