Competition and Competitors

Interesting to sit and think are you actually competing with other firms? In a competition you have two entities pursuing the same achievement under the same rules at an agreed upon time to credit Simon Senik (Infinite Game).

The Patriots and the Jets compete in the NFL. Same rule book, same basic steps to arrive at the desired outcome (the W), and they are scheduled to play each other. They can declare a winner.

I read and listened to Infinite Game several years back. Read a bit of a Finite and Infinite by James Carse right after. Have not thought about the topic much.

As a business I may compete head to head with someone on an RFP. I may do a similar scope of work as they. But unless we are relentlessly going after the exact same thing, at the exact same time, are we “competitors”? Or are we just businesses that do similar stuff?

Besides. Do you want to compete with someone anyway? Why the need to compare to someone else. The market does that anyway. But how much time is it worth obsessing over?