32 Examples of Competitive Pressure

John Spacey, June 10, 2020

Competitive pressure is a drive or need to change in order to keep up with the actions of competitors. This can apply to both firms and individuals.

Firms

Competitive pressure is a basic driver of change in every industry whereby firms competing for business make improvements that puts pressure on their competition. The following are common types of competitive pressure for firms.

Brand Image	Brand Recognition
Cost / Price	Customer Experience
Customer Service	Location
Product Features	Product Functions
Product Performance	Quality
Reputation	Sustainability
Time to Market	Turnaround Time

Competitive pressure benefits consumers and nations in general as it pushes firms to add more and more value at less and less cost. This assumes there are laws in place to prevent competitive pressures from creating economic bads.

Individuals

Individuals also face competitive pressure in school, sports, business and social groups.

People appear to be naturally competitive such that they commonly enjoy simulations of competition in games. As with firms, competition can be viewed as a driver of improvement in individuals but can have negative impacts as well, particularly where people become overly competitive such that they are unhappy or overly stressed. A certain level of stress can be positive as a means for building personal resilience and adaptability. Avoiding all competition is indicative of mediocrity. The following are common types of competitive pressure on individuals.

Authority	Deadlines
Evaluations	Happiness
Income	Influence
Performance	Politics
Position	Productivity
Quality of Life	Recognition
Reputation	Rewards
Scores	Social Status
Wealth	Work Quality

As an example, employees may compete to be more productive in order to earn respect, bonuses, promotions and job security.

Mindless Competition

Mindless competition is competition that is causing more damage than good. This can occur where either firms or individuals fail to ask basic questions such as "Why?" or "Is this worth it?" Firms often fall into the trap of trying to emulate everything a competitor does such that they lose their identity and core competencies. Likewise, individuals may engage in stressful and fruitless competition such as negative office politics that may cause them more damage than good.

The Surprising Benefits of Losing

The benefits of competition stem from the effort that it creates even if you don't win. There is often value to be found in a loss. In an individual, losing can create positive character traits such as humility, personal resilience or a sense of humor. If one carefully examines each loss there is often value to be found that may be the basis for your next win. Likewise, a firm strongly driven by competitive pressures may be likely to succeed in the long term regardless of short term failures due to the competencies and culture this can build up that defeats mediocrity.

Notes

Firms and individuals may also compete against themselves whereby they try to continually improve upon their best results so far. This is a good approach where you lead or lag the competition.