Competition underpins survival—geopolitically or commercially (corporate). The 9 Great Corporate Battles of the 15th to 19th Century between the British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company or the wars in the oil industry viz-a-viz Standard Oil and British Petroleum, Royal Dutch Shell, Burmah oil or Aramco or, for that matter, the Financial Sector. Only a handful of corporations are adept at taking a holistic view of competition—existing, emerging or latent.
While consulting for an international insurance group in the recent past, I found that there was no clear understanding of what constitutes competition. Most companies fail to see the real competitive threats until it’s too late. Coca-Cola just doesn’t just compete with Pepsi. It competes with water, tea, coffee, juice, energy drinks, and anything else that goes down the throat.
Netflix doesn’t compete with Disney. It competes with sleep. Amazon doesn’t compete with Walmart. It competes with boredom. If a company defines competition by product category, it will always be too late. If you define it by customer outcome, you’ll see the threats 2 to 3 years before they show up in your P&L.
The 3 layers of competition.
Every market has three layers of competitors. Most executives only track the first one.
- Direct competition. Same product. Same customer.
Coke vs Pepsi. iPhone vs Samsung. This is easy. Market reports. Pricing. Dashboards. Quarterly Calls.
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Category competition. Different products. Same category.
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Latent competition. Could become competition if consumer behaviour or technology shifts.
Examples: for beverages GLP-1 drugs are reducing Soda cravings.
Retail: AI agents that buy for you. Disruption almost never starts in layer. It starts in layer 2 or 3 where no one is looking.
Three case studies in redefining competition
Coca-Cola: The total beverage war
Coke’s internal strategy isn’t “beat Pepsi.” It’s “Win every Beverage occasion.” That includes hydration, stimulants, indulgence & health. That’s why the Coke portfolio now includes Costa Coffee, milk, water, sparkling water, & Energy Drinks. Almost 360° degrees competition coverage.
Netflix: Competing for attention. For years Netflix competed with Disney, HBO and Prime. Then the line changed to “we compete with sleep”. The real fight was from 8pm to 11pm. That time window is occupied by TikTok, YouTube, mobile gaming, etc. Netflix diversified to attack competition.
How to spot threats earlier?
Competitors can’t predict every disrupter. But they can widen the lens.
Watch adjacencies. Track companies moving into categories next to yours. That’s where most of the threat emerges.
Follow where capital is going: Venture capital, PE & big tech investment are a fairly good indicator of emerging competition.
Closing thought: Competition is not a list of company names. It’s a sum total of what’s happening in the marketplace. The labs, the factories and, above all, the consumers mind.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
The writer is the former Executive Director of the Management Association of Pakistan
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