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Outsmarting Goliath

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Outsmarting Goliath

How to Achieve Equal Footing with Companies that Are Bigger, Richer, Older, and Better Known

Bloomberg Press,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

You may be small, but you have to think tall (and carry a sling shot) to take business away from the giants.

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Editorial Rating

6

Qualities

  • Applicable
  • Engaging

Recommendation

Debra Koontz Traverso presents a compilation of tips telling the entrepreneur or owner of a small business how to compete with established companies as well as other start-ups. Traverso includes a few personal examples, although this is mostly a how-to guidebook. Much of the advice may seem familiar to those who have read similar books or attended small business workshops, but Traverso does manage to throw in a few pointers that make you stop and think. For example: Stand up while you talk on the phone - it will increase your energy level. (Try it: It really works!) In addition, the book offers guidance on creating the right image, partnering with outsiders and family members, making the most out of mundane daily activities and marketing on a limited budget. Top executives may want to skim this to learn how start-ups and small businesses are striving to compete with them, but getAbstract recommends this book primarily to entrepreneurs and small business owners who don’t want to stay small forever.

Summary

You Can Compete with the Big Guys

Even if you are a small company or start-up, you have an arsenal of tactics you can deploy to compete with big companies and outsmart them. Such tactics can help you land assignments and get sales. The main strategies to use involve your "attitude, character, creativity, delivery, ingenuity, identity and positioning." You can also act to improve the stability of your business and your employees. The primary strategies fall into these areas:

  • Crafting the right image.
  • Involving other people in your plans.
  • Turning daily routines into opportunities.
  • Marketing for optimum impact.

Crafting the Right Image

First, create an effective, positive image. The advantages of being a small business include closer management, better customer responsiveness and improved flexibility in adapting to market changes. Present yourself in a way that plays up these advantages, even though people think that "big is best" in today’s corporate world. To attract customers, you have to appear "sizable, reliable, successful and proven." While this may seem difficult when you are "small, new, untested and untried," ...

About the Author

Debra Koontz Traverso has been a consultant to scores of small and large businesses, including UPS, NASA, Dow Chemical, United Airlines, Nike, and Coopers & Lybrand. She is an adjunct faculty member at Harvard University and co-president of WriteDirections.com, experts in business and personal writing. She has worked for, with, and around Goliaths for more than 18 years as a business journalist, marketing communications specialist, management consultant and business owner.

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