Path 2: Look Across Strategic Groups within Industries

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Path 3: Look Across the Chain of Buyers In most industries, competitors converge around a common definition of who the target buyer is. In reality, though, there is a chain of “buyers” who are directly or indirectly involved in the buying decision. The purchasers who pay for the product or service may differ from the actual users, and in some cases

Path 1: Look Across Alternative Industries

First tier: “Soon-to-be” noncustomers who are on the edge of your market, waiting to jump ship. Second tier: “Refusing” noncustomers who consciously choose against your market. Third tier: “Unexplored” noncustomers who are in markets distant from yours.

What is the context in which your product or service is used? What happens before, during, and after? Can you identify the pain points? How can you eliminate these pain points through a complementary product or service offering?

Now put the clock forward twenty years—or perhaps fifty years—and ask yourself how many now unknown industries will likely exist then. If history is any predictor of the future, again the answer is many of them.

What trends have a high probability of impacting your industry, are irreversible, and are evolving in a clear trajectory? How will these trends impact your industry? Given this, how can you open up unprecedented customer utility?

Competition should not occupy the center of strategic thinking.