So you’re small and want to compete with Wal-Mart? Easy. Just don’t be Wal-Mart.

Be Local

When Wal-Mart came to Canada they changed the star in the middle of the name to a maple leaf and all the commercials said “working hard to be Canada’s Wal-Mart!” I’m sure they spent zillions on trying to establish themselves as brand Canadians would accept. Years later, I took a survey of 1 million Canadians and only 1 person said they felt proud to shop at Wal-Mart because they were supporting a truly Canadian business. Ok, I actually only surveyed one person, and that person was myself, but I didn’t think Wal-Mart was distinctly Canadian, so the results were still the same. No matter how smart, big, and powerful they are a big business cannot compete with you if you establish yourself as a small and local company. You are small and local by nature, so just go with it.

Respond to Your Customers

I used to be a big fan of Sony. They have cool products and a cool image, and whenever I called them they were pretty helpful. But they took away my favorite product, the Clie. So I called up Nobuyuki Idei (who was the CEO at the time) and he told me that sorry, the Clie ran into some legal issues with Palm and they couldn’t produce it anymore, but he had a few in the warehouse and he’d send one over to me. This story isn’t completely true. Actually I just lost interest in Sony and bought a smart phone that took an SD card instead of a Memory Stick. Then I bought an HP computer, and then a no-name mp3 player that took SD cards, and now I could care less if I have a Sony anything. It’s not Sony’s fault, they were just too big to react quickly to my needs. Small businesses can avoid this problem if they want to.

Don’t Be a Sell Out

Unless you’re name is Mic Jagger, it’s pretty hard to be big and powerful without being a sell out. I for one would sell out in a heartbeat, but until I have that opportunity I’ll make sure every knows I’m underground and in touch with the common people. It may even be a good idea to give to charity just to prove you’re not all about the money. After you get rich and fat you’ll enviably lose you underground appeal, but then you’ll be rich and fat, so who cares.

Don’t Be Evil

Ok, this is Google’s mantra, and you can’t get any bigger than Google. But making it you’re mantra isn’t enough. If you’re bigger, then you’re eviler. People are suckers for the David and Goliath story so you should leverage that blind love. Case and point: Apple—evil. But who would ever pick on the poor little company with 5% market share? Apple has shamelessly milked their underdog status from the beginning, and you can too! It also helps these days if you play it off like you’re socially responsible.

Tags: being cometitive, compete, small business competitiveness
Categories: Lesson, Bachelor of Commerce, Entrepreneurship, Business
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