Keep Your Friends Close, and Your Competition Closer

When The Art of War was written over 2000 years ago, out-smarting the corner store down the block wasn’t exactly what ancient military strategists had in mind. Yet “keep your friends close, and your enemies closer” rings true in the convenience store industry today.

10 Benefits of Business Competition in the Convenience Store Industry

In war, you can’t win without an enemy. In business, you can’t excel without competition. Think about how these 10 benefits of business competition can help you improve.

1. Combats complacency. Think about running a race. The more people who are on your heels, the faster you’ll run.
2. Validates your business model. You may think having no competition would be a good thing, but if you’re not competing with anyone, that means there’s not a big demand for what you offer.
3. Generates innovation. Without business competition, you have no reason to improve.
4. Promotes good customer service. All else being equal, service is what sets you apart from the other choices consumers have.
5. Encourages cost control. There are many hidden costs of doing business. When you have competitors, you’re more likely to identify and manage risk.
6. Helps you grow your business. Business competition forces managers and owners to look for new opportunities that set themselves apart.
7. Highlights the need for a productive work environment. Healthy competition for customers usually means you also have healthy competition for employees. To stay fully staffed, you have to be the employer of choice.
8. Fosters problem-solving. Having competitors vying for your customers gives you a reason to solve problems productively and efficiently.
9. Supports goal-setting. Business competition forces you to create smart goals and implement employee training to achieve those goals.
10. Inspires great leadership. Remember another piece of sage advice from The Art of War: “A leader leads by example, not by force.”

More Insight on Competition and Leadership

For more tips on how to make your company stand out from the competition, check out the Culture of Convenience podcast.