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market. Also, include in your evaluation any alternatives that
serve to satisfy the customer problem you are targeting, even
if those alternatives don’t appear to be direct competitors.

One of the effects of Lynn Ivey’s passion for her solution
was underestimating the power of two competitive forces at
play in her chosen market. The first was the home care in-
dustry, which had grown significantly over the prior decade
as a result of the same aging trend spotlighted by Lynn. Sev-
eral home care companies had been entrenched in the local
market for years, providing in-home skilled nurses and com-
panions for frail and declining seniors. Although these ser-
vices were defined as “competition” in Lynn’s first business
plan, she actually thought of them as important partners and
referral sources, rather than competitors. She hoped they
would send prospects to The Ivey who weren’t a good fit for
in-home care or bring their own clients to the center for so-
cially stimulating field trips. As she looks back at the sales
challenges of her first two years of operation, it’s clear that
in-home care was a favored solution for many of her “ideal”
client prospects. A second competitive alternative to The
Ivey was the simple, powerful force of inertia, the tendency
for a family’s status quo situation to maintain itself. Even
when family members saw The Ivey as a potential solution
for their worries, the complications of switching their loved
one into a new routine seemed to outweigh the perceived
benefits.

5. What is your competitive advantage? What is unique about
your offering (your “secret sauce”)? What differentiates you in
the eyes of customers? When Professor Karl Ulrich of Whar-
ton Business School opens his undergraduate product-design
class each semester, he rolls into the classroom atop a Segway
Personal Transporter. After fielding comical looks from stu-
dents and offering each of them an opportunity to ride the
device, he uses the Segway as a case of an inspired and cre-
ative product that has yet to find its ideal user. Beyond the

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