Do you want to destroy your competitors?

"Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." Respect . This surely is the least we should expect from anyone.

I stiill can not understand how every so often in business and personal life, you still come across immature insensitive egotistical people (who strangely are often academically brilliant).

I would guess that they are so insecure that they go through life hating the world so much, that they need to go out of their way to destroy anyone personally or in business for no reason other than to support/force their own superior beliefs.

More importantly. Why do we tolerate and encourage such people in life!

Hopefully we don't have people in 4n like this! or if we do lets hope they do not hang around for too long! for all our sakes.

Personally,

I really don't see the people in my industry as competitors.

Largely, this is the usual question of competition coming up against collaboration. Collaboratively you are a market force for good. Competitively as little bit of rivalry improves the market place. Destroying people is not good business - that doesn't mean negligence has any place. A gentle nudge from someone else in the same industry is pretty welcomed.

I find that having relationships with people in the same industry builds a better understanding for me and others going forward - there are many shared values, understanding and lessons to keep beating round.

It is all good.

Negligence has no place though and neither does a pretence that you are all things to all people.

Specialisms should be respected for what they are.

Businesses are as unique as the people in them, time to reflect and respect, but a good chance to learn and develop with others.

I'm a work with kind of girl, I like to have someone reliable I can pass people onto if I can't do what someone needs, however there are people I dislike, I just leave them to it they will in time do damage to themselves and bad feeling creates negitive energy in my life and I really don't need that

What a complete load of utter bollocks.

Why on earth shouldn't 4N businesses compete extremely aggressively? No one has to "destroy" others, but think how you would feel if watching F1 the teams didn't want to absolutely win at the cost of the others, or if you found that Tesco and Asda were collaborating instead of operating in direct competition? It would be scandalous.

there is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to win in business, at football, at the Olympics or as chess. Where there is a winner there are losers.

Look, you use businesses and services every day from people you may not personally like. This is business, not a social club. Of course you help people when you can (I have helped LOTS of businesses), but you owe it to yourself, your business, shareholders, employees and future (and customers) to win!

Spouting utter rubbish like that joke stuff above, is just nonsense. Usually that stuff comes from people who have no risk, no overheads, employ no staff, do not have massive tax and NI bills and have few responsibilities. no business mortgage, and don't have their neck on the line. I have 10 people depending on me - how many jobs have YOU created Yiannis? So less of the asinine crap. Thanks.

Competition is the basis for everything.

I will say, there is an art to winning without fighting, but in all seriousness competition is as much about combat as anything else.

I really enjoy avoiding the blood sport.

For me it is simple. Work > I have a job to do > Do it.

I actually really like YIANNIS's attitude there is a very British trait where we seem to hate to see others doing well. So to see Yiannis thinks like this gives me hope, I just run my company as well as I can I don't try and f**k other people over to do so, I don't try and undercut people I charge my prices and hope people will come to me for quality service as well as price.

I like to see other people doing well and I think respect is really important.

*dons hard hat*

I (do my best to) respect everyone, regardless of what type of business they are in. When it comes to my competitors I do a bit of everything - some I work with to deliver bigger projects than I could manage alone, some I learn from, some I refer work to, some I just get on well with and some I respectfully keep at a distance! When it comes to 4N specifically, I have just recently encouraged two new businesses that are very similar to mine to come along ... way I see it, there's plenty of work for all of us.

There is nothing to fear in someone in the same market place.

Get to know them well. That's all I have to say. Combined strength is always good.

There are winners and losers to every situation. It's natural: natural selection.

I'm sure someone smart will come and say about niche marketing - in a minute. Well done, to whoever follows. RESPECT.

If you have a niche, then you reduce or eliminate the amount of competition. That's why a unique selling point is so important.

Does everyone think that there is an infinite amount of business to go around?

There is a finite amount and if someone else gets it and you don't, then ultimately it is your employees who get sacked, your house that gets sold and your kids that don't eat.

It is hard to believe how much I want to take business from my competitors. It does not have to be price driven. Whenever I hear of one going bust, we party. Because, frankly, they would party if I went bust.

I would love to hear how all these supportive competitors arrange help you with payroll or pay your mortgage when you are a bit short.

In almost every business sphere I can think of the best companies are the ones who compete aggressively.

|My business is moving in a different direction so I'm more than happy for proofreading/editing types to come in and snap up new proofreading clients. If I find that I start losing the work I would normally expect to be winning, then rather than destroy my competitors I need to look at what I'm doing wrong and what I could be doing better.

Ling, tell me more...

I filled in the poll and admitted to treating competitors with respect. But in many ways I agree with Ling. Let's put the question in a slightly different way and try and answer truthfully:

Would you rather be the only writer/designer/manufacturer offering your service through 4N, or one of many?

The essence of running a business is to eliminate competition and offer the finest service available. Fulfilling either clause will bring about the success of the other, although providing an unbeatable service is the only ethical way of eliminating competition.

The total elimination of competition will lead to a fall in standards, so a balance needs to be struck. Hertz and Avis were always great rivals, and always bid to outdo each other - great for the punter and kept both companies happy because there were lots of punters to go round. But then again they were the two largest by miles, so really they were each other's only competition. Only when smaller companies started taking market share did they become competition worth worrying about.

In the same way my competition is only a threat to me when there is too much of it, or more correctly, too many of them in one place.

I agree with Ling, but I don't.

Business is the only sphere of life where you can some second and still be succesfull .(usually, not always) In fact, many businesses are coming 100th and still making money, so it depends.

I am not out to destroy my competitors, but I would not shed a tear if they went to the wall. I will collaborate but not always. If I am going for a project and I know I am up against competition it is nice to win. Its nice to collaborate but nicer to win!

Overall, I agree with Ling. It is tough and most people do not care if you go to the wall or lose a customer. I do not want them to go bust, but if it were them or me.................

Competitors that are doing better in our field keeps us working harder, competitors that are not make us work even harder, don't know what to do without competitors.