Do you need to beat down competition to beat them?

1 min read

10 September 2015

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Do you need to beat down competition to beat them?

I stumbled open a video of Steve Jobs discussing a new partnership on the ZA Tech Slack Channel. It was in 1997 when Apple announced that they were partnering with Microsoft. Yes, you heard me right. They partnered with their biggest competitor.

A lot of things were announced about what would be done in the partnership with some receiving quality feedback and others receiving jeers form the crowd. It probably left a lot of people wondering why this partnership even existed.

Then Steve Jobs explains it all.

It made me realise that it's not really about beating down your competitor and saying our product is better. It's saying how can I serve people better by partnering with anyone, even my biggest competitor, who can make my product add value to people's lives. That is what Steve Jobs realised and I think that mentality has been lost over time.

Let me not bore you with my writing. Here's the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxOp5mBY9IY