Successful strategies often owe a great deal to the inertia and inefficiency of rivals. For
example, Netflix pushed past the now-bankrupt Blockbuster because the latter could not, or
would not, abandon its focus on retail stores. Despite having a large early lead in mobile
phone operating systems, Microsoft’s slowness in improving this software provided a huge
opening for competitors, an opening through which Apple and Google quickly moved.
Understanding the inertia of rivals may be just as vital as understanding your own strengths