The Impossible Advantage: Winning the Competitive Game by Changing the Rules

The surprising limitation of the World’s Number One business strategy

There are almost as many business strategies as there are stars in the sky, but throughout the 1980s, one of these strategies took root in the business landscape in a manner never seen before. We refer to the concept of ‘Positioning’. First introduced by Al Ries and Jack Trout in the 1970s, Positioning began its rise to prominence with their 1981 classic book, Positioning - The Battle for Your Mind.

The dominant role of Positioning as a business strategy is perhaps no better demonstrated than in a simple Google search. At the time of publication, a search for the keyword ‘Positioning’ returns six times as many results as the term ‘business strategy’, four times as many as the name of the US president and about as many as the high profile ‘climate change.’ Not bad for something originally conceived as an aid in the development of advertising campaigns!

WHY THERE ARE LIMITS TO THE POWER OF POSITIONING

Positioning has achieved this status of distinction because of its undeniable success. Brands have been built and companies founded on the basis of solid and distinctive Positionings. When it all first started about twenty years ago, the few corporations using smart Positioning techniques were able to achieve a lasting head start in the Competitive Game. The three authors of this book all started their careers at one of the world’s most respected ‘schools of marketing,’ Procter & Gamble. Positioning was - and remains - at the heart and soul of P&G’s marketing and advertising planning process. Nothing can be started without a succinct, precise summary of a brand’s fundamental Positioning, over which seemingly endless energy is expended in refining, polishing and perfecting, producing in the end a crystal-clear brand strategy statement.

Is Positioning still as powerful as it used to be? For the very reason that Positioning is now pretty much a standard tool in marketing, we are facing a situation today where you can expect that the majority of your competitors are as skilled in developing clever Positioning strategies as the marketing professionals in your own company. In other words, the concept of Positioning has substantially contributed to taking the Competitive Game to a higher level. Your own company, for instance, is undoubtedly playing the Game in the marketplace on a higher level these days than ten or twenty years ago - but so are most of your competitors. That is why we believe that it is time to stretch our strategic thinking a bit beyond Positioning.

It has always been the most natural thing in the world to compare competition with a game - just like football, basketball, baseball, tennis or chess. If we take that metaphor seriously, ‘Positioning’ is very much what the players do in any type of game to achieve a strategic or tactical advantage over competitors. Football players ‘position’ themselves, as do tennis players or chess players. Using the ‘game’ metaphor leads us to making an important statement about Positioning - and about its inherent limitation.

‘Positioning’ is what players do to achieve a competitive advantage. But when choosing their Positioning on the field (or marketplace), the players must respect certain limitations, namely the rules of the Game. These rules are accepted as part of the untouchable framework conditions in a game. In that sense, the rules of the Game limit your Positioning options as a player.¹

It is as simple as that. The 64 squares of a chess field limit the Positioning possibilities of a chess player. Obviously, no chess player in the world - no matter how ingenious he may be - can position his figures beyond those 64 squares. That’s what the rules of the chess game define - and not even in our fondest dreams would we try to shake or break or reinvent those rules. What about the Competitive Game in business life?

As consultants and business executives we have observed over many years how companies in the most diverse business sectors deal with these ‘laws and rules’ of the ‘Competitive Game’ in the market. The vast majority act much like this chess player: they blindly respect the rules - as if they knew they were sure to lose if they shake, break or change them. At first glance, this makes a lot of sense, but then again, once in a while you come across a company or corporation that does exactly the opposite. By changing the rules of the Game, they liberate themselves from any limitations that stand in the way of dramatic and sustainable growth. By shaking or changing the rules, you can fundamentally ‘rock your market,’ dethrone competitors and achieve a sustainable leadership position. Most interestingly, it seems that any company can do this - even if they do not have a breakthrough product innovation or a market leader position or unlimited funds.

THE RULE MAKER’S ‘IMPOSSIBLE’ ADVANTAGE

Quite logically, those players that take control of the rules in a Competitive Game enjoy a remarkable advantage over other players who strictly play by the rules. In any formal game or competition, this would be unheard of, bizarre, virtually impossible. The rules are ‘taboo’ for the players - it is as simple as that. However, the Game in the marketplace is different: the players are also making the rules. Well, at least some of them do while the vast majority of players in the marketplace are happy with just playing along. They do not know much about the rules, let alone the fine art of changing them to their own advantage. Have you ever wondered what the ‘laws and the rules’ in your market really are and where they are coming from? Nobody has ever articulated or expressed these rules - neither in spoken words nor in writing. So why do we all believe we need to respect them and that we will fail in the Competitive Game if we don’t? Where do the rules come from? How does winning and losing in the marketplace depend on the rules of the Competitive Game - as opposed to more tangible competitive factors like product quality and innovation? How can you find out whether the rules of the Game are helping your company or whether they stand in the way of success? Most importantly, how can one company - yours, for instance - change the rules of the Game in your market to your own benefit?

This is the new aspect of business success that our book will address. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first publication of this kind. Go through the tons of business literature, methods and strategies, principles, insights and panaceas of the last twenty years. You won’t find much - if anything - about the rules of the Game in the marketplace. And most certainly, you won’t find out anywhere else why and how any company has the opportunity to change them to their own advantage.

GAME CHANGING STRATEGIES START WHERE POSITIONING STOPS

It was our realization that the ubiquitous concept of ‘Positioning’ had several inherent limitations that was the impetus for our development of what we call ‘Game Strategy.’ The fundamental premise of Game Strategy is that participants in the market can in fact change the so-called rules of the market, while the Game is being played. These participants are actually able to intervene in the underlying processes and rules governing the market, take control of them and turn them to their own advantage.

Game Strategy recognizes that the rules of the market can be changed and turned into powerful levers for growth and market success. In this way, Game Strategy is ultimately able to produce significant changes in the prevailing power relationships in the market.

In this book, we will demonstrate through concrete case histories across a broad range of product and service categories how individual firms are able to overturn apparently inviolable market rules, and in so doing dethrone previously all-powerful market leaders. We will also show how not only large and powerful companies are able to change the rules of the marketplace, but also smaller firms or even newcomers.

This book will show you four specific kinds of Game Strategy through which you, too, will be able to alter, modify and change the rules to your own advantage.

The ‘Positioning’ concept implicitly respects the laws and the rules of the market as part of the untouchable framework conditions in the Competitive Game. ‘Game Strategy’ goes further, challenging those rules and laws, modifying them and turning them into powerful levers for growth, and thereby shifting the market’s prevailing power relationships.

Game Strategy is something all firms, large, small or medium sized, can use to their advantage. It does not require breakthrough technical innovation or extraordinary levels of marketing and sales investments. It does require a fresh, new way of thinking.

SIX PREJUDICES TO IGNORE

In most situations in life we are used to following rules that somebody else defined - and only rarely do we assume the role of the ‘rule maker.’ From earliest childhood, most of us have been taught and trained to follow rules - and were punished if we broke them and frustrated if we tried to change them. All of life’s experiences teach us the same thing: ‘If you want to win the Game, you have to follow the rules.’

Game Strategy works only when you are prepared to challenge previously accepted rules and laws, and do so with absolutely no ‘taboos’ in your thinking. You have to ignore mental prejudices, such as these:

1. ‘The only ones who can change the rules of the Game are the big players, the market leaders, the guys with huge resources and all the time they need. That’s not our situation. We don’t have either the capital or time needed. At the end of it all, we would end up stretched way beyond our limits.’

2. ‘The rules in our market have evolved over years, or decades, or even centuries. They are what they are, and that’s that. As a single company, all on our own, we can’t do much about it.’

3. ‘By the rules of the Game, I’m talking about legislation, namely the political, regulatory and legal framework conditions in the marketplace. That’s why we have lobbyists, whose job is to represent our interests to the politicians. Our lobbyists will do whatever is possible in the political arena.’

4. ‘Why should I risk everything by trying to change the rules of my market? We have more than enough problems in trying to sell our current products and services. That’s where we have to put 100% of our focus.’

5. ‘Sure, it would be great to revolutionize the market, but to do that you’ve got to have a technological breakthrough or a truly groundbreaking product innovation. There’s just no realistic chance of that. So we had better play it safe.’

6. ‘Lots of people have tried to change the rules of the market and all they have to show for it is a big black eye. Too risky. If we try it, things will spin out of control, and then the competition and the media will finish us off. We just cannot afford to take that risk.’

By and large, these reservations are very understandable. However, they all impose drastic limits to the kind of thinking and perspective needed to realize truly outstanding potential in the marketplace. Only if you accept no taboos in your thinking will you be able to recognize and capitalize on all of the opportunities the market offers.

Our analysis and conclusions are all based on real case histories and supported by our collective experience as managers and consultants across a broad range of business sectors. The Game Strategy thought process is applicable to managers in all sectors, at all levels of the organization and across all professional disciplines. We have consciously avoided a lot of the marketing and management jargon all too often used in this field, in order to encourage a range of managers from different disciplines to get personally involved with the critical issue of marketplace growth.

After reading this book, we hope you will have a very different view of your market, your competition, your own position in the market and certainly your own growth potential. Above all, we hope to have offered you a new way of thinking, able to give you the inspiration needed to steer the way to dramatic growth in the years ahead. With this in mind, let’s get ready to find out how Game Strategy works!

It’s time to think radically about growth

A recent survey showed that over 80% of all managers in companies of any size believe it is critical to understand and follow the rules of the Game in the marketplace, if they want to count among the winners. While that may be true, our observation is that the biggest winners are those that do the exact opposite. Firms that throw the conventions of the market overboard and invent their own game. These companies - we call them ‘Game Masters’ or ‘Game Changers’ - are the ones who come up with the real marketplace breakthroughs and achieve astonishing growth - not just a few tenths of a market share point but big, even leadership, shares. Here’s the good news: the art of these Game Masters is something you can learn. There are tried and tested strategies for success that in principle ‘anyone’ can employ. All you have to do is change your entire way of thinking!

Let us start with an example from the airline business, in Europe, in 1985. Tony Ryan is an Irish entrepreneur who has just founded a new airline, called (what else?) Ryanair. His aim is to challenge the national flag carrier Aer Lingus. Tony’s company gets big quickly - unfortunately, so do its debts. After three years of trying, Ryanair stands on the brink of bankruptcy. Tony then hires a chartered accountant by the name of Michael O‘Leary to tackle this problem. After having a quick look at the sad state of affairs, Michael tells Tony to close the books and call it a day. What he doesn’t count on is Tony’s strength of will: he refuses to fail and hires O’Leary as CEO, giving him a simple brief: ‘Turn it around.’ The rest, as they say, is history.

SOMEONE COMMITTED TO BREAKING ALL THE RULES

O’Leary didn’t have any time to lose, but what he did was nothing less than lay the foundations for a completely new market in Europe: budget air travel. Borrowing from the US success story of Southwest Airlines, O’Leary created this market in Europe out of not a lot more than ‘thin air.’ He started from scratch, throwing out almost all the ‘rules and laws’ of the traditional airline business.

First, O‘Leary asked himself a lot of questions: Where is it written in stone that airlines have to fly from major metropolitan centers? Nowhere, so he decided that Ryanair should fly exclusively from second-tier airports in provincial cities and towns. Who needs complicated route structures? Ryanair routes are without exception point to point. Who says that only long distance routes are profitable? O’Leary built an extremely efficient ‘shuttle’ service on short routes. Why do you need to have a fleet made up of different types of aircraft? Ryanair concentrates on one single model of airplane. What’s the point of business class? Why have an airport lounge? Why do you need check-in terminals at the airport, employing expensive staff? To cut down on staffing, Ryanair runs almost all of its booking through the Internet or a call center. Why does everyone seem to believe that on-board service is a ‘must’? To further reduce staff, Ryanair avoids any kind of in-flight entertainment or free meals. Under O‘Leary, the company even got rid of free peanuts, not because they were particularly expensive, but rather because they increased cabin cleaning costs. Which law says that an airline has to make money on the transporting of passengers? Ryanair makes its profit on ancillary businesses: O’Leary established partnerships with firms in the tourism business. He rents out the space on the back of his seats to advertisers instead of having a seatback pocket. He sells meals, snacks and drinks. Most recently, he has announced plans to launch a fee-charging, in-flight Internet telephone service. This collection of related businesses represents a full 16% of total revenues, and is projected to rise to 25%. O’Leary even dreams of one day giving away the flight tickets! You pay for the other bits and pieces, but the flight is on Ryanair.

In a nutshell, Ryanair broke with just about every single established convention and rule in the market. O’Leary reinvented flying and his new low-cost airline market operates according to totally different rules and laws. As a result, the new type of airline transports double the number of passengers for half the cost of traditional carriers. A flight from London to Linz (or from Frankfurt to Fuerteventura for that matter) costs about 10 euros. That’s flying at the price of a taxi, assuming, of course, that you only take the cab to the corner store.

Budget Air Travel Runs Wild

Here is a boom like nothing we’ve seen for a long time. One of the world’s most traditional markets was so fundamentally reinvented that it defied the laws of global competition. September 11, 2001 plunged the entire global tourism industry into a deep crisis. To everyone’s amazement, that is exactly when the low-cost airline boom began. Like mushrooms, budget flyers sprang up out of the ground all across Europe and proved to an astonished financial world that - in sharp contrast to traditional ‘premium’ airlines - they could make fistfuls of profits during a major economic downturn. When things were at their absolute nadir - 2003 - Ryanair placed an order with Boeing for 100 brand new planes at a cost of over sixty billion dollars O‘Leary was able to negotiate a hefty 40% discount and smiled when commenting on the event: ‘During the time after September 11, 2001, I was the only one who called Boeing wanting to place an order.’

The big, state-owned airlines were put in a tremendous squeeze. It was therefore no surprise when they responded by creating their own low-cost copycats - like Lufthansa with GermanWings - but all to no avail: the original low-cost airlines, with faster turnarounds and city-to-city ‘shuttle’ services, just had too much of an advantage on the short haul routes. At one point, British Airways considered throwing in the towel, and concentrating exclusively on long haul routes. It looks like ‘David’ is putting the big, national ‘Goliath’ under quite a bit of pressure!

Then came the ultimate symbolic triumph in the battle with the national airlines: just a week after the Irish government privatized Aer Lingus, O’Leary made a takeover bid for the national carrier to a tune of about 1.5 billion euros. Panic spread through the Irish government, who at first refused to relinquish their 25% share in the flag carrier.

At this point, low-cost airlines were no longer a niche market, but the growth motor for the entire sector. By 2004, in Europe alone, there were 54 low-cost airlines, with a collective market share of 30 to 35%. By 2010, low-cost carriers are projected to account for about 40% of the market. The greatest beneficiary of this trend is the company that started it all: Ryanair, with an annual turnover today of over 2.7 billion euros and a pre-tax profit of 480 million euros. Before the end of this decade, Ryanair is a serious contender to become the largest airline in Europe, by almost all standards of measurement.

The Revolution Gains Momentum and Affects Adjacent Markets

Provincial airports used to be pleasant, sleepy little places, with a lot of historical charm. Not since budget carriers came to be. The former US Airforce base at Hahn in northern Germany has announced an expansion plan costing 200 million euros. The German federal government wants to revive old decommissioned rail connections to Hahn at a cost of 100 million euros. And here’s one crazy fact: not only is the operator of the main Frankfurt airport, Fraport, involved with Hahn’s revival, but so is Lufthansa, through its participation in Fraport. The media has loads of fun with the fact that Lufthansa is actually helping its low-cost competitors to grow even larger.

Lots of other industries have been affected, in some surprising areas. Take, for instance, the bus business: the manufacturers’ association reports declines in new registrations for tour and city buses in the range of 10%. The leading German newspaper, FAZ, reports ‘Low-cost airlines are a plague on the bus industry.’ Even the national railways cannot avoid the effect of budget flyers: first class luxury train service from Cologne to Hamburg had to be downgraded to a normal service. According to the head of the German railways, Hartmut Mehdorn, since the arrival of budget air travel, the luxury train simply no longer made economic sense.

Tour companies are also complaining: the CEO of Alltours, Verhuven, said that it is ‘absurd’ when a train ticket from Düsseldorf to Frankfurt costs more than a plane ticket from Düsseldorf to Rome. His solution is government price controls in the form of ‘national minimum air ticket prices’ together with a ban on all forms of subsidies for low-cost airlines - this from the man running one of the leaders in the low-cost travel sector.

One of the other side-effects of the structural change caused by the boom in low-cost air travel has been unprecedented competition among airports. Airport authorities across Europe are fighting furiously to secure low-cost airlines. The appeal of these carriers is the highly profitable ‘nonaviation’ business: duty-free shops, restaurants, boutiques and parking garages. These businesses represent together almost 30% of an airport’s total revenues. Who would have thought it possible: airports fighting tooth and nail for low-cost carriers! The winners, the ones who secure slots for the budget carriers, will have to introduce new standards of speed and efficiency, probably through outsourcing. Now that business travelers have discovered the advantages of low-cost carriers, even the biggest airports are going to have to get downright dirty to compete with their cheaper provincial rivals. ‘Any airport not slotting low-cost airlines is going to find it tough going in the future,’ according to one industry source.

Not surprisingly, local politicians are also jumping on the budget airline bandwagon as a means to enhance the attractiveness of their locations. Take, for example, Weeze am Niederrhein, not exactly a household name, but near the Dutch border and the beneficiary of an array of state subsidies geared to attract low-cost carriers and thereby maintain jobs in an otherwise economically distressed region.

The low-cost airline boom shows no sign of relenting. On the contrary, it is now migrating from Europe to Russia, Asia and Africa. Especially in Asia, low-cost travel is the foundation for air travel as a whole, offering accessible flights to a huge emerging middle class for whom flying used to be a dream beyond their