Hardest to beat competitor
For many products there is a competitor that is hard to beat called ”doing nothing”. If there is a habitual option to do nothing, then most people will do just that. Always analyze the size of the competitor “the usual way is to do nothing”. If this is the biggest competitor from the list of all possible competitors it will be extremely expensive to become a big player in this market. You can compete only for those who at least do something.
I believe you terribly right, and it corresponds with my own truism for many years, that if you just do your things as a business owner 10% better than your competitors you be able to leave 95% of them behind in the dust (because they don’t «do anything». However, there will always be 2-3 other competitors that have understood the same as you, and the are your peer group. Finally, as Micheal Porter says his book «Competitive Strategy», you should always «take care» of your best competitor, that is the best defence towards internal complacency, uncontrolable labor costs, spiraling bureaucracy and finally against ending up in jail because you have won the capitalist game and ended up as a monopoly.