Bill Gallagher argues that business leaders need self-awareness to identify their competitive advantages and find a niche. Startups can use their nimbleness as a moat to build core competencies that larger competitors can't match.
Self awareness is a key attribute for any business leader. So one of the first things that a CEO or any business leader has to have is self awareness to know what they're good at, what they're not good at, and where they need help. I think companies are just the same way where you have to have a lot of self awareness to know what your competitive advantages are. You're looking at your competitors out there or people that provide similar goods or services and you're saying, here are the things that these guys do really well. And then you're trying to figure out where your niche is going to be in terms of what you're going to do better than they are. And so you're going to create your competitive advantage and that competitive advantage. And by the way, startup companies have competitive advantages. I mean, it could be that you're just responsive, right? I mean, startup companies are nimble. People think that you could be. You have to be a big company to have a moat. I think small companies have lots of moats. But you figure out what your competitive advantages are and then you focus on those and that becomes basically the seed for what your core competencies are.
