Akio Morita Quotes

Even if someone is already in your market space, ask yourself whether you can approach it from a different angle and thereby secure your own customer base.

When you can't compete on cost, compete on quality.

We are market based and have to differentiate our product in many ways; pricing isn't the only one.

You either have to be first, best, or different.

Strategy is about setting yourself apart from the competition. It's not a matter of being better at what you do - it's a matter of being different at what you do.

If you do everything that everyone else does in business, you're going to lose. The only way to really be ahead, is to 'be different'.

All happy companies are different: each one earns a monopoly by solving a unique problem. All failed companies are the same: they failed to escape competition.

A company doesn't have to compete with Amazon. A company can instead innovate in sectors Amazon doesn't presently care about.

When looking at trends I always ask myself basic and timeless questions about business, and the one I seem to always come back to is, 'How is this different than anything else in the marketplace?'

The essential element of successful strategy is that it derives its success from the differences between competitors with a consequent difference in their behavior.

You need to define yourself in the marketplace.

You need to understand the market, know how you can differentiate yourself in it, and grasp the price and the functional differentiation competitive points that are going to allow you to be disruptive.

Management innovation is going to be the most enduring source of competitive advantage. There will be lots of rewards for firms in the vanguard.

Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it's about deliberately choosing to be different.

If you don't have a competitive advantage, don't compete.

We're learning a lot from large international competitors... As we go international, we're looking to add something unique to the market. And so when we do go international, it won't just be as a taxi service.

We can only compete in the world against competitors from Asia, the United States, or wherever if we look at unmet needs.

One of the things that slightly annoys me in business is that we use words like innovation. Young people often think innovation is about doing something new, but actually it's not. It's about doing something better than your competition.

The real competitive advantage will come to countries and companies who differentiate their offerings through education, innovation, and productivity.

To gain the competitive edge, companies must master the ability to innovate.

I live by the business model that there is a better than, a less than, or a different than. Those are the three categories. I chose to be different than. The one that's different than will stand out with the proper work ethic.

In every company, differentiation is never more important than it is in times of trouble, and that's the time when everyone tends to go to the well and equalize rather than differentiate.

Make a list of competitors who will be disrupted by you. You do have competitors, right? You are better, right? If not, why are you going to Disrupt? Post a blog post about them and what makes you different.

Market growth alone doesn't give you enough tailwind. You have to create your own. The way to do that is by designing products for consumers that wow them.

My advice for an entrepreneur just starting out is to differentiate yourself. Why are you different? What’s important about you? Why does the customer need you?