Defender, Challenger or Spectator?

by Rich Horwath A condition is a situation with respect to circumstances. The term condition can be applied to a number of different arenas, from medicine (What is the patient's condition?) to sports (What are the conditions of the golf course?). Before a physician prescribes a course of treatment for the patient, she will first want to understand their condition (symptoms, age, allergies, medical history, etc.). Writing a prescription for Amoxicillin for a patient that has a known allergy to that class of antibiotics would be unethical and dangerous. Before a professional golfer selects a club to hit his tee shot, he'll consult with his caddie on the conditions of the hole (wind speed, wind direction, slope of fairway, slope of green, etc.). Deciding to hit a 7-iron approach shot from 200 yards over a lake without accounting for the 20 mph headwind could cost a golfer the tournament title and thousands of dollars. In each instance, the prescription of treatment and the selection of golf club are conditional. How would you describe your business condition? While the responses may range from optimistic to hopeless, your condition could be described as defender, challenger or spectator. A defender is a company, product or service that has market leadership and is in the position of guarding the business they have while growing. A challenger is a company, product or service that actively seeks ways to expand their business and profitably grow. A spectator is a "me-too" type of company, product or service that operates in either a constantly reactive or mind-numbingly passive way. The goals and strategies you set can be conditional, depending on which of these positions you find yourself in. Defender Strategies As a market leader, the defender generally has two goals: retain customers and slow the rate of customer defection. In determining their strategies, they will look to leverage their strengths and neutralize rivals. McDonald's is a good example of a defender able to retain their customers by leveraging their strengths of consistency and location, while continuing to expand into healthy menu items and beverages. Dunkin Doughnuts has also defended their market by blunting rivals (i.e. Starbucks) perceived advantages, showing how ordinary folks prefer the taste of their coffee to others. If your product/service is in the defender position, consider the following questions to maintain and grow the business: 1. How can we retain customers by leveraging our strengths? 2. How can we neutralize the perceived advantages of rivals to retain customers? 3. How can we use our strengths to slow the rate of defection by customers to other attractive options? Challenger Strategies The challenger may be a new entrant into the market or one that has maintained a secondary or tertiary position for various reasons. Either way, the challenger's goals

Copyright 2012. Strategic Thinking Institute. All rights reserved.

are to take customers from competitors and/or convert non-users to customers. They can accomplish these goals by creating strategies that leverage their strengths and exploit other's weaknesses. When it comes to taking customers from competitors, the challenger can design strategies that change the game, as Cirque du Soleil did when they created a hybrid of the circus and theatre. The challenger can also employ the Judo method of positioning competitor's strengths as weaknesses. This was Target's approach as they implied that Wal-Mart's every day low prices would limit the style quotient of their products versus Target's chic value offerings. If your product/service is in the challenger position, consider the following questions to capture a greater share of business: 1. How can we use our strengths to take customers from competitors? 2. How can we reposition competitor's strengths as weaknesses in order to gain their customer's business? 3. How can we educate and create urgency within non-users to transform them into customers? Spectator Strategies Many products and services continue to receive time and budget each year without providing much value to customers or profit to the company. These spectators either wait for the competition's next move and then mindlessly react to it or they sit passively by and watch competitors continue to grow at

their expense. If you find your product or service in a spectator role, it's time to honestly answer the following questions: 1. Why are we in this product/service category? 2. Is the product/service contributing profit to the business? 3. How can we redesign or reposition the product/service so that it brings unique value to key customers, resulting in greater profit? 4. Would the customers we value most miss this product/service if we discontinued it? 5. Could we bring more value to the market if we discontinued this product/service and focused our resources (time, people, budget) on more profitable offerings? Taking into account the position in the competitive landscape when developing strategy means it's conditional. Not taking into account the position in the competitive landscape when developing strategy means it's moronic. Defender, challenger or spectator? Who are you and what are you going to do about it?

Rich is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author on strategy. As the CEO of the Strategic Thinking Institute, he leads executive teams through the strategy process and he has trained more than 50,000 managers around the world to develop their strategic thinking skills. A former Chief Strategy Officer and professor of strategy, he brings both real-world experience and practical expertise to help groups build their strategy skills. Rich and his work have appeared on ABC, CBS, CNBC, CNN, NBC and FOX TV. Sign-up to receive your free copy of Strategic Thinker by visiting www.strategyskills.com
Copyright 2012. Strategic Thinking Institute. All rights reserved.