Competing, as defined by dictionary.com is said to be, “striving to outdo another for acknowledgment, a prize, supremacy, profit, etc.; to engage in a contest.”

Merriam-Webster also defines competing as a state of rivalry or competition (for position, profit, or a prize) (adjective) is said to be striving against one another to gain or win something.

Humans by nature are motivated by competition. Indeed, this is a way of life for the human race, purely due to factors like scarcity. 

In the book “David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants,” by Malcolm Gladwell. Malcolm argues that for anybody to get ahead, one needs to relook how we compete, handle obstacles and adversity.

The book looks at a fascinating study of individuals, groups or societies who have overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to achieve success in a wide variety of disciplines.

Malcom explains the advantages of having “Disadvantages” and the Disadvantages of having “Advantages” by examining the lives of several people who excelled in spite of competition, obstacles and adversity.

He further made it evidently clear with the work of political scientist, Taft.

In that study, Taft summed up the major wars of the last 200 years as between small armies and large armies. In the research, he argues that 28.5% of the time, the small armies (often 10 times smaller) are able to defeat the large armies when they rethink their strategies and use unconventional means against the large armies.

When you compete and strive against one another with the aim of gaining or winning something, Renee Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim in their book, Blue Ocean Shift: Beyond Competing – Proven Steps to Inspire Confidence and Seize New Growth. They proposed rather that we rethink and move in search an untapped potential, opportunity or innovation and thus adopting a red ocean strategy. The book seeks to challenge everything we knew about strategy and asks us to rethink strategy. It inspires confidence, thinking and standing apart from the competition.

Renee and Chan, studied 108 new businesses, out of which 92 of them adopted red ocean strategy and aimed at dominating. While the other 16 businesses went in search of an untapped opportunity. 

Over the several years of their study, 92 businesses accounted for 32% of total profit for all the 108 businesses, while the 16 businesses that went in search of new opportunities and sort to rethink and do unconditional things accounted for 61% of the profit.

In conclusion, some of the lessons to ensure we rethink to take advantage of some of the untapped potentials, and opportunities are the elements of value innovation, developed by Renee and Chan.

1. Eliminate — get rid of some of the odds that as an individual or as a business makes you ineffective. In fact, you should eliminate to make you efficient, smart and intelligent (for a business, it means) speed to market while serving the needs of new customer base.

2. Reduce – what things can one reduce as part of activities to be great, faster, better focused and effective?

3. Raise – what standards can you raise in order to ensure one dominates one’s chosen field or market while exploring to the fullest, one’s competitive and comparative advantage, as explained in the book” The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast as Your Business” by Professor Rita G. McGrath, Columbia Business School.

4. Create – what kind of innovative culture, processes and areas can one create in order to constantly remain relevant, for example Apple has built an effective innovation culture and system to harnesses creativity in its people, stimulate new ideas and is always launching successful and profitable new innovative products and services.

This article was written with the inspiration and content from

• Merriam-Webster

• Dictionary.con

David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giant

Renee Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim: Blue Ocean Shift: Beyond Competing