What is hard for your competition to copy?
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 28 May 2007, 6:34 PM – 7 Comments
Here are few things that is hard for your competition to copy (individually and collectively)
Your history is yours alone. Nobody can repeat it.
2. Your Identity
Identities are built over a lifetime. Whatever you have built as your identity so far, others can’t copy it.
3. Your Relationships
Who you know, how you know who you know, who knows you – these are all impossible to copy.
4. Your Configuration
How you have structured your business, who owns how much, the vendors you chose and your relationship to them etc. are hard to copy.
5. Your Values, Beliefs, Determination
These are all so personal. If they are powerful, you have a huge competitive advantage.
6. Your Intellectual Property
When protected right, it can be a source of competitive advantage.
7. Your Timing
If you time the market right and your competition does not, you have a huge lead.
The above list is incomplete and I am sure each one of us can come up with more items to add to the list.
Her are my points:
2. Most often, it is not that we don’t have enough resources that makes us fail. It is how we configure “everything we have” to gain superior strength.
- Mimic as a strategy for competitive advantage?
- Ways to distinguish yourself – #77 Treat your competition with respect
- We don’t have any competition
- The competition dilemma
Posted in the Business Models, Main Page category.


7 Comments so far, Add Yours








Anonymous on May 29th, 2007
Dear Viktor,
Thank you for your help. I don’t know Czech but that is one country that is in my list to visit. Don’t know when
Best,
Raj








Anonymous on May 29th, 2007
Your Customers:
We often resort to vanilla-strategies of cold-calls, emails (and spam) to hit customers but forget that our customers are unique to us (or our business). Each customer has a special relationship with us if we care to spend enough time to nurture them.
A reason why the services industry in IT is so screwed up: if we cared to build unique relationships hard to copy (and yes, hard to develop), customers will not put us on competitive bids with other vendors.








Anonymous on May 29th, 2007
Couldn’t agree with you more Karthik. Thank you.
Best,
Raj








Anonymous on May 29th, 2007
I agree very much. The thing is though that for many owners/managers it is too abstract and expensive to build “long-term” relationship with quality customers that get the rumor going. For some reason it’s too abstract – opposed to spamming.








Anonymous on May 30th, 2007
Hi Rajesh,
I do agree with what you say here. But it is the URL of your website that actually caught my attention. It reflects my own opinion about life in general. I share some thoughts with a few people on the net, once in a while. So if you find the time, do share your opinion on my blog sometime.








Anonymous on May 30th, 2007
Thanks for stopping by Anand. I will check out your blog.
Best,
Raj
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Anonymous on May 29th, 2007
Dear Rajesh,
I found this entry ver, very profoundly true in its essence and therefore I have translated it and post it in Czech language with proper crediting. I hope it is alright.