Don't Follow the Leader

Stand out with more types of innovation, not just by mimicking your rivals

Competing businesses tend to emphasize their products or services, naturally. But there are many more areas for innovation which can give companies advantage. Take the rental-car business Four competitors -- Hertz, Avis, Budget, and National -- fight for market share like cats in a bag. Any service innovation that comes from any one player is swiftly emulated by the others. Enter Enterprise Rental Cars which avidly pursues innovation in terms of business model, channel, brand, and customer experience.

The result?An upstart moves to first place. While Enterprise is nowhere near as old and established as Hertz, it rocketed to revenues of nearly $7 billion, vs. about $5 billion for the former market leader.

Take-away principle: Don't assume that you must innovate by changing the product. Think about more types of innovation.

Credit:
Metrics: Doblin Inc.
Analysis: Peer Insight