理查德•布兰森谈如何对待竞争

    本文是与《创业者》杂志（Entrepreneur）的合作内容。下文最初发表于Entrepreneur.com。

    要想取得商业上的成功，就要勇于迎接竞争——但不要让竞争打倒你。如果你能在尊重对手与击败对手之间找到平衡点，你就掌握了成功的秘诀。

    而实际情况往往是，企业经营者们对竞争对手的举动过于关注。创办一家企业有许多工作要做，很容易就会认为别人的企业比你自己的更优秀（甚至一门心思地去探究对方的一举一动）。这种想法确实不无裨益：针对竞争对手进行市场调查，你就可以知道如何才能提供更好的产品或服务。正是出于这个原因，我偶尔也会搭乘其他航空公司的航班——当你发现了竞争对手需要面对的难题，并竭力想出好的解决办法的时候，出色的点子就会冒出来。

    密切关注市场竞争状况是有益的，但你必须集中精力关注自己的企业团队、产品以及服务。与竞争对手亦步亦趋的企业肯定总是落于人后，从而从根本上催生一种被动保守的企业文化。被动保守的企业拒绝创新，很快就会被消费者抛弃。归根结底，如果同样的产品别人做的更好，消费者为什么要买你的呢？提出远大的理想，努力创新，并集中精力开发新的产品或服务，你的公司也会成为别人争相模仿的优秀企业。

    多年以来，维珍航空公司（Virgin）曾经历过无数大大小小的竞争——而我们从来都是坦然面对。有些时候，初期友善的对立会升级成为激烈的对抗。应对这种事态的关键在于，懂得什么时候要表明立场，什么时候要一笑以置之。

    我举个例子。最近我前往墨西哥城，参加我们新创公司墨西哥维珍移动公司（Virgin Mobile Mexico）的发布会。在我抵达之前，一位竞争对手大肆制造谣言，说我们将在墨西哥城推出“维珍玉米饼”。当然，压根没有这家公司，制造谣言不过就是为了混淆视听。于是，我邀请墨西哥的几位知名博主吃了个午餐（当然，我们吃了玉米饼！），向他们介绍了我们的好几名员工，并向他们耐心解释我们的移动公司与其他竞争对手的不同之处。

    我一向直截了当，但是在与竞争对手打交道的时候，稍微采取一些策略有时能更好地达到沟通的效果。今年早些时候BLAH Airlines（指维珍航空的广告中虚拟的一家航空公司，暗指其竞争对手）的病毒式营销就是一个很好的例子。在BLAH Airlines简陋的网站上，“You will get there（你会到达那里）”的标语显得非常没有创意，下面则列举了其航班一堆的“特别”之处，例如窗户及扶手。这间以米黄色为主色调、平淡无奇、令人乏味的公司，还在上个月推出了时间长达六个小时的视频，暗示着在BLAH Airlines航班上的每一分钟是如何度日如年。

    人们很快就意识到，维珍美国航空公司（Virgin America）是这一整个事件的幕后推手。不少民众表示，BLAH让他们联想到我们真实的竞争对手，并且突出了维珍美国航空的与众不同之处。只要凭借一点这样的想象力和高超的策略，我们的团队就能够在竞争中脱颖而出——而且无需提及任何竞争对手公司的名称。

    的确，航空业是一个因竞争而兴盛的行业。维珍澳洲航空公司（Virgin Australia）与澳洲航空公司（Qantas）的对决早有大量资料可循，而维珍大西洋航空公司（Virgin Atlantic）与其竞争对手英国航空公司（British Airways）多年来的历史恩怨同样出名。事实上，我们希望将维珍大西洋航空公司打造成为英国行业领头羊的努力，确实让英国航空公司如坐针毡。在上世纪九十年代，英国航空向我们实施了一个人尽皆知的“诡计”——包括指使乘客向维珍航空泼脏水，并通过媒体肆意传播捏造的故事，对此，我们向法院提起了诉讼，并最终获胜。这一事件在我们员工内部得到广泛传播，我们戏称这是“英国航空的圣诞礼物”！

    This post is in partnership with Entrepreneur. The article below was originally published at Entrepreneur.com.

    If you want to be successful in business, you need to welcome your competition with open arms — just don’t let them walk all over you. Strike the right balance between respecting your rivals and focusing on how you can beat them, and you’ll have a winning formula.

    It’s not unusual for an entrepreneur to become overly preoccupied with what his competitors are up to. Starting a business is a lot of work, and it’s easy to convince yourself that the grass is greener on your rivals’ side of the fence (and to even become obsessed with peeking over the fence to see what they’re up to). These feelings do serve an important purpose: By doing market research on your competitors, you can work out exactly how to provide a product or service that is superior. This is the reason that I sometimes fly on other airlines – often, great ideas are sparked when you notice a problem that a competitor faces and try to find a good solution yourself.

    While it’s beneficial to keep an eye on the competition, you must remain focused on your own team, and on your own products and services. Companies that are always trying to keep up with the Joneses will always be a step behind, and this can foster a culture that is, at its core, reactionary. Businesses that are reactionary forgo innovation and can quickly become irrelevant to consumers. After all, what’s the point in buying something from you that another company has already done better? Show ambition, put some effort into creativity and focus on developing the next big thing, and your company will emerge as the one that others want to copy.

    Over the years at Virgin, we’ve had many battles with our competition — and we’ve welcomed them all. Sometimes what starts off as friendly opposition escalates into antagonism. The key to dealing with cases like these is knowing when to take a stand, and when to laugh it off.

    Here’s an example. I headed to Mexico City recently to help launch our new company, Virgin Mobile Mexico. Before my arrival, a competitor leaked a fake story that we were launching “Virgin Tacos” there. There is no such company, of course, but rather than make a fuss about it, I met up with some of Mexico’s leading bloggers for lunch (we had tacos, of course!), introduced them to a few of our staff and explained why our mobile company can provide consumers with something different than the competition.

    I usually favor directness, but when it comes to dealing with competitors, sometimes your point can be better communicated through subtlety. The viral launch of BLAH Airlines earlier this year is a great example. Below a deeply uninspiring tagline that assures passengers that “you will get there,” BLAH’s clunky website lists a few “special” features on their flights like windows and armrests. This beige, bland, boring business also launched a six-hour video last month showing what every excruciating minute on a BLAH Airlines flight was like.

    People quickly realized that Virgin America was behind the whole thing. Many said that BLAH reminded them of our real-life rivals and highlighted how different Virgin America is. With some imagination and subtlety, our team was able to get one over on the competition — without mentioning any company by name.

    Indeed, the aviation industry is one that thrives on competition. Virgin Australia’s battles with Qantas are well-documented, as is Virgin Atlantic’s long-standing rivalry with British Airways. In fact, our efforts to establish Virgin Atlantic as the leading airline in the U.K. has certainly gotten under British Airways’ skin. After their well-known “dirty tricks” campaign against us in the 1990s – which included passenger poaching and planting hostile stories in the press against Virgin — we sued them and eventually settled out of court. The proceeds were all distributed to our staff in what became known as the “BA Christmas Bonus”!