"Slightly Better" is a Losing Strategy

Competing by offering a product that is only incrementally better than the competition—a little faster, a little smaller, a little cheaper—is a dangerous and unsustainable strategy. These minor advantages are fleeting and easily erased by competitors.

This approach inevitably leads to:

• A War of Attrition: Competitors can easily match or exceed small improvements, leading to a "death spiral" of price cuts and feature creep where no one wins.
• Lack of a Defensible Position: A slight edge provides no lasting barrier to entry. It does not build a loyal customer base or a strong brand identity.
• Inability to Overcome Incumbency: A "slightly better" product cannot overcome the massive advantages of an entrenched leader's brand image, distribution channels, and customer relationships.

The goal should not be incremental improvement but significant differentiation. It is far better to be significantly different in a way that matters to a specific customer segment than to be marginally better across the board.