Competitive Dynamics Quotes

There is always competition for influence, but there are also opportunities for cooperation.

My dad used to play every other weekend with me when I was young. I started getting better, but he could always beat me. Then one day, he realized the jig was up. And he stopped playing me just before I could beat him.

As a multisport athlete, I was always fascinated with competition and how to win. At HBS and later at the Harvard Department of Economics, I was drawn to the field of competition and strategy because it tackles perhaps the most basic question in both business management and industrial economics: What determines corporate performance?

When an entrant competitor attacks the low end of any market, the rational reaction of the incumbent firms is to abandon rather than defend it - because the low end is the least profitable of their possible investments.

That competition and the struggle for existence is the mechanism behind this state of perpetual change.

Whatever happened in the regular season seems to not matter in the playoffs.

When one doesn't want the limelight, but is also creative in developing whatever it is they are, then you can have two equal people that aren't competing against each other. I think when you are in the same field, it's difficult to leave it outside and not compete. Then when the doors are closed; that pervades everything.

Microsoft has had clear competitors in the past. It's a good thing we have museums to document that.

It's a sad situation when you have to talk crap about other organizations that you know your paths are never going to cross competitively.

I think it's very, very tough to compare postseason and in-season, just for the simple fact that there's the heightened levels of energy on both sides of the ball.

Modern competition is often described as a fight of all against all.

We must never underestimate our opponents; nor should we forget that the closer we come to reaching our objectives, the more vicious and forthright will their opposition become.

Never accept or be too comfortable with the status quo, because the companies that get into trouble are historically the ones that aren't able to adapt to change and respond quickly enough.

I don't want to go into the situation of the other teams, other clubs, other managers. Every single club decides their own strategy.

Football can stand parity better than any of the other sports, I think. Baseball, basketball and hockey need a defining team, in essence to frame the season. Football? Not so much.

It is not a normal game when you play against your brother.

We expect a horse race, ... The reality is that competition drives all innovation. Intel did nothing with its 386 chip for five years until AMD introduced its own version in 1991.

When product performance outstrips the ability of customers to use that performance in an industry, the competitive game changes. Under those circumstances you have to decouple components businesses from assembly businesses.

The competition principle does not mean a competitive edge, comrades

Because you know, I’m your best friend, but you’re just not that badass, man.

Every fighter fights in the ring the way his opponent lets him fight.

I think that the relationship between two top-level athletes who are rivals is one of the most fascinating human relationships to explore. It's always one atom away from being a tragedy.

It is the nature of being the general manager of a baseball team that you have to remain on familiar terms with people you are continually trying to screw.

Athletes as a rule are stronger than their backers; yet the weaker presses the stronger to put forth all his efforts.

The essential element of successful strategy is that it derives its success from the differences between competitors with a consequent difference in their behavior.