Rivalry in Business: Competitive Rivals

Rivalry is a critical competitive advantage adopted by ventures to grow their organizations and enhance sustainability. Today’s businesses are operating in a fiercely competitive environment, having to adopt rivalry to remain relevant. Though competition promotes performance and motivation, its adoption can have detrimental effects on an organization’s long-term sustainability (Carnevale, 2019). Entrepreneurs should evaluate the trade-offs in rivalry adoption for them to understand the possible pitfalls and manage them to achieve maximum benefits.

Costs and Benefits of Rivalry

Competition helps entrepreneurs remain focused on their goals; thus enhancing business performance. Having a business rival creates some level of excitement within the venture and causes people to work harder. Rivalry and commitment towards the realization of business goals are positively correlated, leading to improvement of overall performance (Carnevale, 2019). However, having rivalry can lead to the development of unethical behavior when one is committed to winning at all costs. As a result, the business damages its reputation and other important relationships that enhance its success. Loss of a venture’s integrity has long-term consequences that negatively affect performance and sustainability. A business rival can cause people to engage in reactive decisions that affect the venture’s performance.

Recommendations

There are several strategies that entrepreneurs can adopt to minimize the losses associated with rivalry. First, it is important to perform a cost-benefit analysis when adopting the strategy to weigh its benefits and losses to the business’s long-term success. Critical thinking is a fundamental way for entrepreneurs to avoid mistakes involved in out-competing their rivals (Carnevale, 2019). Careful evaluation of the opposing viewpoints before engaging in a rivalry with a competitor is critical for the venture. Emotional intelligence is one way that entrepreneurs can overcome the possible pitfalls of rivalry and make sustainable decisions that result in the overall performance of the venture. Therefore, a rivalry is a critical strategy which, if carefully adopted by understanding and avoiding the possible dangers, can lead to business long-term sustainability and success.

Reference

Carnevale, J. B. (2019). Competitive rivals can make you more successful. Entrepreneur. Web.