Stasis Is Not A Strategy
We tend to think of the middle ground as a safe space to be in. You’re not out on a limb at the bleeding edge, but you’re also not trailing the pack. There’s no bloodthirsty Coke versus Pepsi battle at play, but you’re also not spending your days fighting for survival.
It’s tempting to get comfortable there. You simply play your position, fight with other ‘middle of the road’ brands and focus on the ‘middle of the road’ customers - those who aren’t big enough to be catered for by the market leaders, who aren’t interested in the top of the line solutions, who simply want something that’s fit for purpose.
In other words, you know your place and you choose to stay there.
As tempting as this strategy might feel, there is one fundamental risk with it: irrelevance.
Almost by definition, if you’re happy being in the middle of the pack, you’re not thinking about what’s next. You’re not thinking about any meaningful long term strategy. You’re effectively comfortable doing what you do well, mimicking the bigger players and following their lead. (At best, you’re adopting a ‘fast follower’ strategy. At best.)
And that leads to the real possibility of becoming outmoded, outdated and irrelevant to the customer. Because the market will evolve.
The big players will make investments to improve what they’re doing. They will find ways to give away lower ticket services as add-ons to the big dollar products that actually move the needle for them (putting the middle of the roaders who offer these services at risk). They will innovate and evolve.
At the same time, there will be emerging players who see the broader market opportunity and will be working aggressively to rethink how the customer receives value. They are the ones who will disrupt existing models, challenge the big boys in new ways and essentially make the middle of the roaders irrelevant.
It’s important, therefore, to choose where you want to play, and how, and what your strategy is for viability, long term competitiveness and real, sustainable profitability. And simply doing what you do now cannot be it.
In other words, stasis is not a strategy.
Yes, it might be comfortable right now, it might be profitable. But the risk of being blindsided is far too high, and far too probable.
It’s far better to challenge for a prize, to take a risk. The alternative to doing so, is irrelevance.
