With all the press that Apple has received recently with the iPad and last week the new iPhone 4, it was interesting to read the review of the new iPhone's features by Kyle Baxter of Tightwind.net.
In it, Baxter highlights the new hi-res screen, the camera and – as ever – the overall design. But technology aside, his most significant comment is not the adding of more features but:
“they [Apple] aren’t attempting to compete with Android phones feature-by-feature. Instead, they are trying to continually redefine exactly what a smartphone is, and thus force their competitors to compete on Apple’s terms. They’re trying to make everyone else respond to them, rather than the other way around.”
Metis Partners always stress the importance of “competing on your own terms” as a key strategic objective and by identifying and exploiting your companies intangible assets - brand and reputation, market intelligence, know-how, IP and culture being among the ten areas Metis consider - you can immediately take the upper hand and make competitors respond to you, rather than you to them.
So if Apple with its wealth and position of strength does it, why aren’t you? What hidden assets do you have that can be used as a “weapon” to compete? Where do you have the pistol to beat your competitors bow and arrow?
