I had mentioned in one of my Instagram posts, “Life is about constantly working on yourself.” Further to this, the excellent book by author Edward de Bono, explains the necessity of going over and beyond competition to sustain and win in the global marketplace. Edward de Bono, the author of this book encapsulates the need to move beyond old competitive strategies. In a world, where everyone’s constantly thinking of going ahead of their competition, it is time to focus more on creating/ manufacturing value that goes a long way i.e. competing with yourself.
The book is for individuals, who are competitive, creative and always strive to go over and beyond, especially when it comes to strategic thinking. We anxiously watch and focus on what others are doing, and often forget to translate our own thoughts and to work towards value creation. Competition is just a bottom line to any business and is a traditional way of looking at things. What’s more important in today’s time of global connectivity and marketplace is to unleash the vast potential of ‘integrated values’ that revolves around any business. A deep study, research, knowledge and understanding of any business is important to be in the competition. However, reinventing ways to go beyond competition by exploiting and leveraging strategies and values, around the product or service you aim at, makes all the difference.
What I loved about the book is, it’s published in 1993 and each word stands true to this day. Bono talks about preparing for the time when there’s a slump in the economy. He also mentions how it is important to stand out if one deploys serious creativity, concept design and R&D and elaborates on the application of each one of these. Although the book speaks more from the business mindset, it is yet well relatable to any profession you are in. I could relate to it from being a marketing & branding professional to also as an entrepreneur.
It will inspire you to go beyond not just average but beat the best of the bests through quality, creativity and giving serious value for anything. The book does not say that the competition is wrong; it just tells you how to think beyond the competition. In other words, to be extraordinary, it’s important to beat the ordinary by providing unexpected products and services. You can’t just replicate business to be in the global marketplace because if you do so, you’ll never be able to create a monopoly. Monopoly is the art of ‘Sur/Petition’. It is the art of breaking the rules by unleashing the value propositions to stay ahead of the game. Being the best or producing the best is not enough in today’s competitive world. Sur/Petition is the need of the hour because value backed with strong strategy, concept and R&D can never go wrong.
Bono explains every aspect of the behavior in a world of competition to the aspects that fall under sur/petition and how the two are different. With thorough experience and life examples, he has done an incredible job in writing this book for generations to come. There’s lot to learn and follow. The initial few chapters would make you feel; you know things already because we have been in the competition state always. Do not stop there. The second half of the book brings you the interesting ways to stay ahead of competition through sur/petition. Go on, read this book and leave in comments how you felt about the book. Please like and share if you found this review useful and follow me on my social media.
Pages: 240
Publisher: Penguin
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