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September 17, 2006
Competitive Strategy 101: Declare Victory Early and Often
I've been meaning to mention this for some time, but one of my favorite competitive strategies is simply declaring victory. Too many companies in new-ish markets wait too long to do this, and by then someone else may actually be the victor, making your claim more than a little hollow.But many markets are tippy -- they want there to be a market leader -- so you can self-servingly help things along by declaring your firm to be the chosen one. It simplifies things, reduces risk, and eliminates uncertainty, thus driving a new stage of market growth.
So, when in doubt, declare victory. Early and often -- and loudly.
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Jim Fallows wrote about this concept in the September issue of the Atlantic Monthly. The U.S., he says, should declare victory on the war on terror.
Yes, I saw the piece, but didn't make the connection to my own noodling on the issue in a different context.
As you say, however, the idea holds, whether it's competitive strategy, or geopolitics. In a sense, it's really just game theory, so it shouldn't be a surprise that it's broadly applicable.
Excellent point. The trick is to be able to justify the claim though otherwise, you come across as a phony.
The best thing that can happen as a result is a competing company refuting your claim as the controversy creates enough publicity for both companies with the winner getting more.
Google used to that with its index size and the message boards would be filled with conversations about it which ultimately helped enforce its market leadership