Fundamentally, there are two ways you can grow a business. You can fight for market share using existing products in established markets against known competitors, and/or, you can innovate new offerings and markets with the intention of temporarily reducing or eliminating competition. There are many degrees and combinations of these two methods but FUNDAMENTALLY you either fight (existing products/markets) or innovate (new products/markets). Think about it in terms of either fighting for existing territory or exploring and innovating new territory.

Regardless of which approach an enterprise may take, at some point the need to defend and fight for market share will be necessary. While innovation may spawn a short term advantaqe that eliminates competition, it will not be long before competitors copy or better your advantage. The Art of Attack focuses on waging and winning battles for market share. More specifically, this manual looks at the opportunity from the vantage point of the smaller competitor challenging a market leader with the intent to permanently dislodge the leader.

This is not meant to indicate that innovation takes a back seat to market share battles. In fact innovation, properly staged and executed, is a potent weapon in any battle for market share. For most enterprises with limited resources the risks associated with innovation are significant. Finding new customers, building new markets and pioneering new channels takes time and money. The smaller enterprise must carefully balance the opportunity for innovation with the need to generate cash flow.

Market share battles can be a lucrative source of cash flow (and provide the resources, and generate the competitive instincts necessary to innovate sustainable advantages). The key feature of market share battles is the absence of innovation risk. The battle takes place with existing products for existing customers with an established need, trained to write checks. How does the smaller enterprise win a market share war against larger better provisioned competitors? By shaping and exploiting mismatched competencies faster and smarter than competing forces.

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