Blindsided into tracking JUST competition? Beware. Rank outsiders can gobble up your ENTIRE industry… Lesson from the Apple way

Obsolescence was a threat of the past. Irrelevance is the threat of the present. It seems like yesterday when management gurus and professionals were consumed by concepts like competitor tracking, benchmarking, differentiation and the likes. But in a short span, operating within the paradigm of your own competitive set seems myopic and frog in the well like

Coke Vs. Pepsi, Chrysler Vs. Toyota, Hertz Vs. Avis, Hilton Vs. Holiday Inn, such jousts have constituted popular management lore in the past. But today its not about who will win but will they both survive? Or more importantly, will their industry survive? Uber and Air BnB rank outsiders have rendered at least the latter two rattled

Apple and its strategy best epitomize how quibbling and unsuspecting players in a completely unrelated industry were delivered a lethal punch that left them reeling. Lets look at few examples

Portable Music Players: It was a cozy club of Walkmans, Walkies, Cassetboys and MiJockeys.  An upstart computer company would have never been considered for membership. But in a single bearlike swipe Apple practically brushed aside all of them. Walkman is finding it difficult to walk today even with an Ericsson crutch!

Phones: Ditto. A clean left hook and an uppercut to a blindsided phone industry and Nokia the leader was kayoed. Last heard, still nursing its wounds in a neighborhood Microsoft hospital!

Cameras: Nikon San, Canon San, Minolta San, Pentax San and others have perhaps already spent hours in a warm, private luxury onsen near Mt. Fuji discussing whether “Shot on iPhone 6” could really mean Shot “BY” iPhone 6 for them!

Watches: A recent supra intellectual apple Watch critique by Tag CEO - no battery and juvenile design! C’mon! Does he think Apple is stupid!? And this will be a third blindsiding for the Swiss. Remember Swatch & Quartz? Guys.. smell the air beyond the Alpine. Also Citizen San, Seiko San and Titan Bhaijaan…. watch out (no pun)

And finally Visa & Master. There is an Apple pay coming your way…

So don't be lulled into a feeling of infallibility of your company or of your industry. Keep an eye not just on your company’s future but also your industry or sectors future. Doesn't matter if you are a traditional FMCG company or a core sector behemoth. There are several Apple like players out there evaluating your sector in real time and could administer a kiss of death

I am compiling a list of sectors that require taking predatory insurance and how they can do it. A few that require emergency attention are banking, entertainment, media, chemicals, logistics, and durables… But more on that and what they should do later

For now, if you are only thinking about your competition, be cautious…. and, if you have anything to do with technology…then, be afraid, be very afraid…