Professor Spear
November 25, 2017
Only the Paranoid Survive
Only the Paranoid Survive, by Andy Grove, is a book which purpose is to alert governments,companies and people to change their ways. There is no such thing as staying the same, you are either going up or going down.
There will always be competition or someone looking to take you down. The world’s marketplace is a battlefield. Competitors are constantly looking for ways, to separate and better themselves than the rest. This is apparent by how they deliver their services and the way they conduct their business at the request and demands of their customers. New competitors have their eyes on your business and your customers are their target. They will do almost anything to …show more content…
Otherwise you will get eaten alive by other “shark” competitors.
Companies that fall because of their inability to prepare properly for changes, generally don’t go back to their previous success. Strategic management is a topic that is emphasized repetitively throughout the book.
The main points I took away are how to productively adjust your firm when there are big changes, and how to prepare your company when competitors attempt to discredit you.
As a business grows, so do competitors. Competitors are always looking for ways to better themselves from other existing companies. The more successful you become the more likely competitors are to want apart of your business. Although, managers have many responsibilities their most important role is to maintain the company's credibility and not let competitors to damage their company. There is no specific way business should be conducted. Every business faces different challenges,so to say every company should follow one standard method would be wrong.
In positions of power, it can be very easy for someone such as a manager or CEO, to be ignorant and abusive of their power. While, the most successful managers are the ones that seek opinions from …show more content…
As Grove puts it there are” competitive forces and super competitive forces”.
Grove says there are competitive forces and then there are super competitive forces. He compares these forces to a gust of wind which signify competitive forces to a typhoon which represents a super competitive force. An example of a super competitive force would be one that is so strong that it changes the essence of how business is conducted in an industry. This might be a little too complex to grasp, so let me bottle it down for you.
Suppose you live in an area where you have several stores, one where you get groceries, hardware in another, and clothes down the block. Then a mall opened, with all of the above products, in the exact area where you generally shop. This would be categorized as a super competitive force. As this mall, provides all you need in one location, which essentially would cause the smaller shops to lose a substantial amount of customers. Because it is much more convenient to pick up all you need in one location, rather than go from shop to shop. This can be seen through technology as well. As technology grows, “old school” businesses aren't as appealing as they