When it comes to your market landscape — what is your approach to engaging in it? How do you view competitors?
My advice is to always be human, honest, real, supportive and transparent, especially to the supposed enemy. Always take the high road. Kill them with kindness. Rising tides floats all boats. Respect everyone. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Respect is a two way street and there should always be mutual respect. In the long run, your company and the market you’re in will be better for it.
Markets aren’t won, they’re led. To stay in the lead is a moving target with no finish line in sight.
Dyn was focused on Internet Performance Management and we were highly aware of our position. We studied the market and the players obsessively.
For a good space and market opportunity to exist, it takes competition, choice, leaders, and followers and many successful companies to grow, thrive, and find their place. It’s very rare when one monopoly owns a market and in the end it creates complacency and greed.
Would Nike be as successful as it is without Adidas, Reebok, Puma or YORK Athletics? Would McDonald’s be as big if not for Burger King and Wendy’s? Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi; beer kings without craft beer; HP, Dell, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Apple, IBM, Oracle all compete in different ways. The correlations go on and on.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m as competitive as they come when the gloves come off in a street fight to earn a new customer’s business. But always remember your relevance and success will be a direct measure of your total addressable market (TAM) and ability to execute in attacking it and winning your “unfair share” — and it takes many companies for a market to thrive.
