Curveball:Strategies to Fool the Competition

Strategic curveballoutfoxing competitorscan be just as effective in vanquishing the competition. A strategic curveball, one that will lead them either todo something dumbthat they otherwise wouldn't havethat is, swing at a pitch that appears to be in the strike zone but in fact isn'tor tonot do something smartthat they otherwise would havethat is, fail to swing at a pitch that appears not to be in the strike zone but in fact is.

You have four types of curveball:

Draw your rival out of the profit zone.Lure competitors into disadvantageous areasfor example, by competing for, but intentionally failing to win, the business of less profitable customers.

Employ unfamiliar techniques.Knock rivals off balance by importing a technique used in another industryfor example, employing the retailer's hard sell in the stodgy world of retail financial services.

Disguise your success.Veil your success by achieving an advantage through unlikely meansfor example, generating product sales through your service operations.

Let rivals misinterpret your success.Allow rivals to act on a conventional but incomplete explanation for your successfor example, squeezing costs rather than aggressively utilizing assets.

• Provide examples of these strategies used by companies you know. If there are not any, please, try to elaborate of an opportunity for chosen company to use some of them.

Strategic hardballplaying rough and tough with competitorsemploys smart strategies to defeat rivals.

• Provide examples (companies) which could be classified as hardball