COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS.

When we talk of competition, the first thing that comes to mind is when two or more people are competing against each other but I will like to expose us to the fact that competition can also be within one person and that is the essence of this article.

But before I go any further, I will like to ask this question.

What is competition?

"The dictionary obviously describes Competition as an act that involves two or more objects, in order to gain a profit or get a reward for being outstanding."

In as much as I would like to agree with this definition above, I want to add that competition can also be practiced by one person alone and let me briefly explain:

I describe competition as a way whereby you set a goal and strive to achieve it, but this can be done by one person or among many people at the same time. If you set a goal to be better than you were yesterday, you have no choice than to compete with yourself or these factors such as laziness, food, friends, discouraging words and other limiting factors will set in and they would want to prevent you from achieving that goal. When your mind is set to achieve a goal, you should place yourself around those that can help you to achieve it; even though the competition is still for you and for yourself alone.

In most cases, people tend to think of competition as a way whereby you stay ahead of other people or where you are competing with others to win a race but in the actual sense, competition goes beyond that and it should be an inward decision for a person/business to be competitive with its previous successes.

Let me explain a little further...

For instance, an athlete is competing with other athletes and they are all preparing for the same rac
e. I believe that, most of the times, it is the athlete that either practises more and prepares very well that ends up winning the race while others come behind. But what if they all decide not to practise at all because they feel that others wouldn’t practise as well or they are just mere lazy to stretch further in winning the race? Then it becomes obvious that the level of the competition is now determinant on the level of the preparation of all the competitors or athletes in the illustration above; but if you’re simply competing with yourself and not another person, then it becomes irrelevant whether someone else (i.e. your competitor/athlete) is practicing or not.

It is therefore imperative that we all look inwardly and try to only compete with our previous successes and achievements rather than looking elsewhere for competitors or who to compete with. In whatever you do, you must have achieved something before and your focus should be on how to do things bigger and better on a daily basis and by the end of the year, you would look back and realize that you’ve actually been stretching yourself to become better. Your previous achievement should not be your finishing line but rather, it should be your starting point for greater things and that is where your own personal competition starts from.  In your Goals process, make your first great achievement to be your guideline to other future achievements and ensure that you don’t go below that ACHIEVEMENT STANDARD that you’ve set for yourself. It will also benefit you to develop a KPI (i.e. Metric) that helps you to understand when you’re falling out of your ‘Achievement Standard’.

In the process of analysing your competition, it must be based on your ‘Achievement Standard’ and if the achievement ascribe to any competition is below your standard, then it is not the best option for you and should not be given any priority.

Competitive analysis can also be described as a review and analysis of all our competitions (both inward and outward), whether they are past, present or future competitions.

There are two types of Competition.

1. Inward competition: (i.e. Competition with self and within.)
2. Outward competition: (i.e. Competition with others and without.)

There‘s always a motive behind every competition and the reason must be genuine enough for you to embark on the journey of competing with yourself or other people.

We must ensure that our past achievements in all previous competitions do not surpass our present achievement, while the present achievement doesn’t surpass the future ones... This is what I called, GROWING UP STEADILY (GUS).

And I can also connect this article on Competitive analysis to one of Abraham Lincoln’s numerous quotes: “I don’t think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.”

In conclusion, I want to believe that many people will now agree with me that they should focus more on their own personal competition and think less upon competing with other people or businesses. (i.e. Your competition should be dependent on your past achievements.)

Analyze your competition wisely and you would not be competing wrongly.

By Temitayo Oyediran,
Director, Teesoft Limited.

(Teesoft Limited is a consulting and coaching company with expertise in project management, service management, business analysis and personal/corporate coaching.)