There’s plenty of business gurus and consultants in the world that’ll tell you “first place in the business race” is critical. They’re happy to take lots of your money to help you get there too.  But how true is that actually?  Don’t get me wrong, first place is glorious. Second place, however, offers several amazing advantages than no one wants to tell you about.

In fact, the advantages are so valuable that labels like ‘first place’ are no longer appropriate. In business, the reality is that first place is ‘The Innovator’, and second place is a ‘Dangerous Competitor.’  If you aren’t prepared to be The Innovator, becoming dangerous competition is an excellent option. This applies at all levels, from a brand new employee climbing the corporate ladder to a Fortune 100 company launching the next big thing.

Advantage #1:  Effort

Being first in business means there is no competition to compare against for pros and cons that drive strategic planning.  Innovators are competing against the unknown which means the list of scenarios to plan for is endless.  There’s no such thing as ‘enough’ when quantifying the effort it takes to be #1.  The journey consists of long hours, challenging setbacks, and massive effort when trying to win first place in the business race.

The Dangerous Competition knows what they’re up against.  When they see an Innovator launch a new product or service, they already know that the concept is likely to be valuable without investing all the time, energy, and effort that the Innovator had to.  Someone else may have gotten the idea to market first, but the Competition can now strategically decide if/how they want to compete. 

• As an individual looking to advance in the business world, you don’t have to reinvent the company to be impressive.  Focus on helping decision-makers solve existing problems that highlight your skill sets and you’ll quickly stand out among your peers.
• On a conceptual level, the Competition doesn’t have to evaluate/compete against the vast unknown.  They just have to decide if they can do a better job than the Innovator. 

Advantage #2:  Cost

There’s a reason the phrase “Let’s not reinvent the wheel” is uttered so frequently.  It costs money to research the market, sponsor focus groups, build prototypes, test the product, acquire government approvals, etc. when developing something brand new.  Competitors pick up where the Innovator left off and “appreciate” [wink wink] that the expensive road to market has already been paved by someone else. 

• Plan your future career moves by researching the career path of others to see what roads to success have already been established up the corporate ladder.  (If you haven’t already started using LinkedIn for this, it’s worth it.)
• Conceptually:
  • Researching “What could be better?” is cheaper/easier than “What could be?”
  • Marketing to a world that wants the product and just needs to know you also sell it, is cheaper and easier than convincing humanity the world is round for the first time. 
  • Approvals cost less time and resources when the conversation starts with “you’ve approved this before” rather than “this is brand new, can we do it?”

Advantage #3:  Positioning

When a runner is in first place, it’s really challenging to mentally calculate how much harder they need to push to maintain their lead.  Their competition isn’t in their field of view so they do their best with the information.  The second-place runner can see their target clearly in front of them and evolves their strategy with every step.  Position in the race determines your vantage point and how much information is available to you.

In business, competitors are always assessing and strategizing how to surpass each other.  It’s an advantage to be able to see what works or falls flat for someone else, over trying to figure out how to be unbeatable in unknown territory.  The moment an Innovator reveals a flaw in their strategy, the savvy Competitor responds with massive action.  Fail to connect with a key demographic in your marketing?  Expect a focused advertising campaign from the competition on that same demographic.

• Imagine how well an interview would go if you could confidently demonstrate that you will repeat/expand on what the predecessor did right, and more importantly fix what they did wrong.
• Conceptually, the Innovator strives for a perfect performance while the Competitor strives for perfect positioning to identify new opportunities.

Advantage #4:  Accelerated Learning

Innovators learn by trial and error.  Competitors learn from the Innovator and “improve upon the wheel already invented.” 

Thomas Edison is frequently quoted about how he persevered through 10,000 ways not to make lightbulb before finding a design that worked.  Great for Tom.  His repeated failures and limited success made him a part of the history books and motivational speeches for years to come. 

An important follow-up nugget to the ‘How not to make a lightbulb’ lesson is that everyone else in the lightbulb industry after Edison got to skip the 10,000 failures and start their learning process with a working model.  The color-changing, wifi-enabled, voice-controlled, cool to the touch, low energy LED lightbulbs of today are the result of subsequent learning.

• Ever see someone get shredded in a meeting or a proposal?  Learn from their mistakes to avoid repeating their pain.  Ensure you understand why decision-makers say no so your proposal “checks all the boxes” and gets approved (preferably with clapping and champagne if you do your homework well). 
• Conceptually, Innovators see opportunity to experiment and find the needle in the haystack that will change the world.  Competitors see opportunities to observe, learn, sell 500 different types of needles, and avoid the haystack entirely.

Which are you?

You can choose to be an Innovator or Dangerous Competition in any situation.  You will likely be both many times throughout your career  The real question is, what are you best equipped to be in the situation at hand?  Are you aware of the advantages and disadvantages of the role you’ve chosen?

If you’re new to a job/company/industry trying to make a name for yourself or work your way up, you are the competition. So what! Let the 30-year vets pave the way for you to bring a new flavor of success to their old way of doing things. What makes you dangerous is that you know how business works, you know your skillsets, and you know how to be successful despite not being in first place. If the so-called big dogs take their eye off you for a second, you’ll fly right past them.

If you have ideas you’d like to share about competition in business and the tactics that bring you success, we’d love to hear about them in the comments below.