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How You Can Use Market Research To Give Your Startup An Edge
500 BC General, Sun Tzu, was right: Spies are a key to success.
“Hostile armies may face each other for year, striving for the victory that is decided in a single day. This being so, to remain in ignorance of the enemy’s condition, simply because one grudges the outlay of a hundred ounces of silver in honors and emoluments, is the height of inhumanity.” Chapter XIII: The Use Of Spies, from The Art of War, by Sun Tzu.
Okay, so what do spies have to with business success? The answer is everything.
If Sun Tzu were a CEO today, instead of a general 500 BC, then he’d be saying that market research (spies) is a critical component to your success. Here’s what Sun Tzu says next:
“What enables the wise sovereign and the good general (the CEO) to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men, is foreknowledge.”
In other words, if you know what your competitors are going to do, before they do it, then you have a huge competitive advantage. And how do you know what your competitors are going to do?
