Former General Electric Chairman and CEO Jack Welch famously said that leaders should always strive to be the No. 1 or No. 2 competitor in their category, but that advice may actually hurt some organizations rather than help them, according to the Harvard Business Review.
One problem with this outlook is that it forces leaders to focus all their attention on market share and not enough on the market itself. For example, although General Mills has become the top cereal company in recent years, cereal sales have declined more than $4 billion since 2000, according to The New York Times.
Organizations should make sure the vertical they are trying to dominate actually has growth potential and that their focus on market share has not created blind spots for unexpected competitors to exploit.