A new study on the digital strategies of better performing companies (and their leaders) versus followers. A big one — 80% of leaders being more willing to collaborate with competitors than followers (23%).
Quoting Channel Life,
The study found that in an increasingly digital business environment, senior executives now see many areas of their organisations vulnerable to cyberattacks beyond the IT function. Finance is predicted to be the most prone to cyberattacks, followed by customer databases, research and development.
According to the report, leaders are more focused on customers than followers, suggesting they are more focused on preventing cyberattacks on customer data.
This from the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) global study titled ‘Where, How, and What Leaders Will Compete within the New Decade
Why do we care?
This got my attention as a long standing advocate for both transparency and peer groups. My friend Karl Palachuk wrote in his blog this week that he doesn’t think that any small business should worry about their competitors, and this data certainly seems to give some backing to that thinking.
I think Karl’s right from the sense of any individual competitor. There seems little reason to worry about a specific company. You aren’t competing with the specific provider down the street. Any analysis there is likely too specific.
Instead, model two. A generic “competitor” who looks like any of your commodity services, and a version that is the new upstart. If you didn’t have any legacy baggage to deal with, your company would look different – and maybe be more agile. Model against those generic competitors… and still share openly with actual competitors.