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Know Yourself; Know Your Opponent |
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Know the strengths and weaknesses of your adversary. |
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When I visited the Philips office in Sao Paulo, Brazil, a senior manager told me that he employed a Japanese descendant as a secretary because she could read the Japanese papers ordered from Tokyo. Caterpillar understands this in Peoria because it knows the Peoria paper is delivered daily by air to its competitors in Japan. |
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Communications are making the world smaller and world competitors better informed. The cost of a three-minute call from New York to London has decreased from over $200 in 1930 to about $2 today. An e-mail sent to anywhere in the world is often at no additional expense because the contact time is part of the monthly fee. The fax has made it possible to send pages of detailed information. For most companies, market research has expanded from domestic to world markets because we can sell to the world and the world can sell anywhere. |
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There are countless people who call on you who also call on your competitor. The editors of trade magazines know what is going on in the industry. The suppliers who call on purchasing agents know who is buying more and who is buying lessand why. Advertising and promotion agents are another source. So are people who come for job interviews. Beware of the supplier who tells you everything about your competitor because he is also telling your competition about you. |
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Business executives changing jobs will bring their preferences in methodologies with them. They will usually clone the style of their previous organization. You can predict what they will do by where they have been. Look at both the issues and personalities. Review the situation in terms of historywho did something like this before, what happened. Look at the personalities in terms of their background of experience. |
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Knowledge of the personal style of competitors is the easy part. Knowledge of one's self is the hard part. The higher the rank, the more difficult it is to get true feedback on one's actions. Don't expect it from anyone internally. To get the truth, you must find an external guru who will hold up the mirror and give you an honest picture. |
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