How to Build Competitive Advantages in Business

Today's episode will make you better at developing a strategy, and evaluating other people's strategies. Roger Martin is one of the world’s most sought-after experts on strategy, and the author of "Playing to Win", one of the most popular (and most actionable) books on learning the art of strategy. He’s written extensively for the Harvard Business Review; consulted for dozens of Fortune 500 companies, including P&G, Lego, and Ford; and written 11 other books on strategy, leadership, and clear thinking. In our conversation, we cover: 🔸 The five key questions you need to answer to develop an effective strategy 🔸 How most companies get strategy wrong 🔸 How to avoid “playing to play” instead of playing to win 🔸 Real-world strategy examples from Figma, Lego, Procter & Gamble, and Southwest Airlines 🔸 Why you need to either differentiate or be the lowest cost 🔸 Shortcomings of current strategy education 🔸 Much more Listen now 👇 - YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gTyPQZus - Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gKWWm-Fp - Apple: https://lnkd.in/gCing92Q Some key takeaways: 1. Strategy is an integrated set of choices that compels a desired customer action. 2. Great strategists aren’t born; they’re made through practice. Even if you see yourself as more operational than strategic, remember that strategy is a skill that anyone can develop over time. Just like any skill, it improves with practice. 3. To win in business, you must be either a low-cost provider or differentiated. If you’re neither, competitors can “bully” you and take market share. Two questions can help you figure out whether you’re winning in these ways. First, could you match competitor price decreases and remain more profitable than them? If not, you’re not a low-cost provider. Second, could customers essentially flip a coin between you and a competitor? If so, you’re not differentiated enough. 4. Use the Strategy Choice Cascade to define and implement effective business strategies. This framework consists of five essential questions: a. What is our winning aspiration? Clarify what you aim to achieve with your strategy. This guides all subsequent decisions and actions toward a clear objective. b. Where will we play? Select specific markets, segments, or niches where you will compete. Focus is crucial; trying to be everywhere can dilute effectiveness. c. How will we win? Determine your competitive advantage. You must either offer customers superior value or operate at a lower cost than competitors in your chosen areas. d. What capabilities must be in place to win? Identify and build capabilities that are critical for executing your chosen strategy effectively. These should be distinctive strengths that set you apart from competitors. e. What management systems are required to ensure the capabilities are in place?

Nobody has an unfair advantage. Everything gets copied. Everyone says the same thing. There are no moats. Or maybe that's not true. Big brands have an unfair advantage of walking into every room wearing a familiar name tag. • Small brands have to be 3-5x better just to get noticed. • HubSpot can rank mediocre content at #1. Your masterpiece limps along on page 3. • LinkedIn selfie bro posts “go get it” and lands 2500 comments. Your thoughtful thread nets 19 likes. When small companies run ads, consumers often attribute them to the category leader. The big get free brand exposure while the small pay for it. Why? Brand size (market share and brand awareness) multiplies everything. Big brands squeeze up to 20x more ROI from the exact same ad dollars. Larger brands can underspend their competition and still grow. Large companies also spend more on marketing and R&D: • Fortune 500s pour ~11 % of revenue into marketing. Most small businesses manage 1–5 %. • Bigger R&D budgets widen the gap further. Dominance compounds. Big brands maintain dominance through massive R&D spend and brand recognition that creates a virtuous circle: stronger brand → more effective marketing → stronger brand. So what's the play to win? 1. Specialization and focus. Own a very specific problem the market leader doesn't focus on. Solve it in a different way. Think and talk about the problem in a new way. 2. Fall in love with taking big risks and making bets because most people are scared of it. Bigger brands are very afraid to take risks and possibly upset someone. Checklist marketing is the way. You can do the opposite. When you realize losing (bets not working) is part of the game, it becomes fun and changes everything. Lose micro to win macro. 3. Make the visual part of your brand impossible to confuse. Distinctive assets, clear promise, ruthless consistency. 4. Punch above your weight on share of voice. Even a focused sliver of the market will notice if you out-communicate within that slice. 5. Reinvest the gains in more brand marketing. Brand strength feeds effectiveness - lower CAC, higher conversions, more word-of-mouth, easier outbound. Create a loop the giants can’t beat in your area of focus. Brand is possibly the only moat you can actually build, but it won’t dig itself. Want to know what's your brand awareness among your ICPs? Run a brand tracking study https://lnkd.in/dV2umFPy

🔍 Strategic Intelligence Beats Gut Feelings Every Time Competitive Analysis Isn’t Spying, It’s Strategic Positioning In business, it’s not enough to be “good” at what you do; you need to be positioned to win. Too many entrepreneurs are trying to grow their businesses in the dark, unaware of how their competitors operate, price, market, and deliver. The truth? If you're not analyzing your competition, you're handing them the advantage. Let me be clear, competitive analysis is not espionage. It’s strategy. It’s awareness. It’s your secret weapon for building a sustainable advantage. I’ve worked with businesses across dozens of industries, from $5K startups to $10M+ scale-ups, and the most profitable ones have one thing in common: They know exactly who they’re up against and how to outperform them. Here’s how top performers do it: 🚨 1. Know Their Market Position. What are your competitors claiming as their unique edge? Do you clearly counter it, or are you just another “me too” option? Study their branding, content, and offers. You’re not copying; you’re identifying your differentiation. 💰 2. Analyze Their Pricing & Value Stack. In retail wireless, I used to run pricing and offer comparisons every single week. Why? Because the market moved fast, and whoever responded fastest won the customers. Are you tracking how your pricing and offer actually compare to alternatives in your space? 🧲 3. Study Their Lead Generation & Sales Process. How do your top 3 competitors attract leads? What platforms do they advertise on? What’s their funnel? In one of our recent strategy sessions, we reverse-engineered a competitor’s funnel using only public pages and ads. We found 3 holes and created an offer that outsold them in 30 days. 📊 4. Monitor Their Customer Feedback. Want the best R&D? Read their reviews. Their 5-star reviews can tell you what’s working. Their 1-star reviews tell you where the opportunity is. At My Biz Coaches, we consistently employ this method to craft more effective offers with inherent market demand. 🎯 5. Create Your Counter Positioning. Apple didn’t try to be Microsoft. They positioned themselves against Microsoft. In your business, clarity wins. Tell your prospects why you're different and then back it up. Bottom line: Competitive analysis isn’t optional; it’s essential! The businesses that scale the fastest are those that understand the game they’re playing, know who they’re competing against, and craft a better strategy to win. If you’re not actively doing that, you’re not building a brand, you’re just reacting to one. #MyBizCoaches #BusinessConsulting #FractionalExecutives #StrategicGrowth #EntrepreneurTips

I saw this post recently on Founder market fit... That starting a business without an unfair advantage dramatically lowers your chances of success. I’ve come to realize that founder-market fit and how uniquely qualified you are to solve a specific problem is often more important than product-market fit, especially in the early days. Some of the unfair advantages that I believe to be the most impactful are: 1) Industry expertise 2) Unique past experiences 3) Network For me, I’ve leaned on the first three to build and grow throughout my career. Here’s how I’ve applied them: 1. Industry Expertise My career has taken me across two very different industries—news media at BuzzFeed and Cheddar and B2B SaaS at ClickUp. At BuzzFeed, I worked on redefining how content was consumed and shared, helping build the brand into a global phenomenon. Later, I transitioned to ClickUp, where I took everything I learned about consumer engagement and applied it to building one of the most recognized brands in productivity software. This ability to adapt and thrive in vastly different markets has been a cornerstone of my approach at Outlever. Having a deep understanding of news media, content creation, and B2B. 2. Network My network has been a huge asset throughout my career. My relationships have consistently helped me solve problems and seize opportunities. Platforms like LinkedIn have been invaluable for my professional growth, especially as a founder. It’s this network that has often allowed me to gain early momentum for projects, attract the right people, and open doors that would otherwise stay closed. 3. Unique Past Experiences The experiences I’ve had in my career have shaped how I approach building brands and businesses. At BuzzFeed, I learned what it takes to create content that resonates deeply and spreads widely. It gave me an understanding of audience psychology and what makes people connect with a brand. At ClickUp, I faced the unique challenges of scaling a SaaS company in an incredibly competitive space, learning how to position and differentiate a brand in ways that drive meaningful growth. These experiences taught me that building something sustainable takes more than a good idea—it requires a clear vision, precise execution, and the ability to adapt to challenges along the way. Before starting anything new, I always ask myself: What are my unfair advantages? Leaning into them has made all the difference throughout in my career and what I believe makes me have founder market fit in my role at Outlever.

If you are building a business, you should be thinking about moats. There's no point putting your blood, sweat, and tears into something that cannot be protected. Warren Buffet is the king of moats. Here are three quotes that have changed how I lead an international consumer brand: Buffet on why every business needs a moat: “We think of every business as an economic castle. And castles are subject to marauders. And in capitalism, with any castle . . . you have to expect . . . that millions of people out there . . . are thinking about ways to take your castle away. Then the question is, “What kind of moat do you have around that castle that protects it?” Summary: If you build a profitable business, other smart people will notice and try to take some of your market share. Getting to profitability is the first step. Step two is defending it. Buffet on what defines a "moat" “What we refer to as a “moat” is what other people might call competitive advantage . . . It’s something that differentiates the company from its nearest competitors – either in service or low cost or taste or some other perceived virtue that the product possesses in the mind of the consumer versus the next best alternative . . . There are various kinds of moats. All economic moats are either widening or narrowing – even though you can’t see it.” Summary: Moats are a sustainable competitive advantage. Every day, they either get stronger or weaker. They offer protection because your competition can't replicate them. Some examples of moats: Amazon: Fulfilment infrastructure Coke: Distribution network and recipe trade secret Nike: Brand Pfizer: Patents and high cost to develop new drugs Netflix: Owned content (Stranger Things, Ozark, etc) Buffet's advice to business operators: "Coke’s moat is wider now than it was 30 years ago. You can’t see the moat day by day, but every time…the infrastructure gets built in some country that isn’t yet profitable for Coke but will be 20 years from now, the moat is widening a little bit. Things are all the time changing that moat in one direction or another. Our managers of the businesses we run, I’ve got one message to them, which is to widen the moat. And we want to throw crocodiles and sharks and everything else, gators, I guess, into the moat to keep away competitors." Takeaway: Great moats take time to develop. You have to invest in the future by continually deepening your competitive advantages. If you aren't actively building your moat, your business is vulnerable. The question I ask myself every day is: "If I didn't work here, how would I compete with Simple Modern?" Then I get to work building defenses against whatever I came up with.