Being close to competition is not as bad as it seems

There is something I learned in business school but never paid to much attention to it then. It’s the concept of being close to your competition. Not in the sense of business strategy and model but in the physical sense of the terms. If you are a software company, like Google, then you move near you biggest competitor, like Microsoft.

In the olden days, 80’s, the concept was to distance yourself far away from your closet competitor in hopes that the competitor would have a higher difficulty obtaining information on what you were doing. Logical yes, smart no. Why is that? Keeping corporate secrets away as far away from competitors should be the smartest thing ever. Wrong-O, it should never get to that point.

Corporate secrets should never be based upon physical distance for security. If you can not lock down information technology long before moving near a competitor there is a serious flaw in the company. Getting back to the main topic: Why you should be watching your competition Right Now! Being close to your competition gives insight as well as providing a base for a similar recruiting pool. That goes for search engine optimization too.

Ever company, blogger or industry specialist should be paying a close attention to where their competitor’s ranks in the SERPs for every main and subsequent keywords. Concept of being close to your competitors so are able to watch what they are doing, especially since everybody and their brother is blogging these days.

During my day job, as Business Development Manager for Barnett Associates Real Estate, LLC I have found that is not so easy competing with companies that have a war chest. With my background it has enabled me to maintain the mind set of there are “weaknesses” in which companies are vulnerable.

So if getting close to your competition has contemplated your thoughts it is wise do make the move. In anyway shape or form that you have control of.

Competition moves forwarded….are you?