Ignoring the Competition

In a prior post, we discussed a McKinsey survey that argued companies do a poor job in reacting to competitive moves by their rivals. They assess just a few options and often choose the most obvious choice.

Here’s another McKinsey survey that asked about respondents’ views on competition from companies based in emerging markets. While most appear to recognize the threat from low-cost competition, they don’t seem to be doing much about it.

• Despite rising wages in China, executives around the world who responded to a McKinsey survey say that low-cost production remains the biggest competitive advantage for companies there and will be for years to come.
• While more executives see China as a threat than they do any other emerging economy, the survey also shows that surprisingly few of them have made efforts to respond to the global aspirations of Chinese companies.