Team game

A hill of beans

Six of the best

Reference

Review

There is nothing more satisfying than seeing once dominant force get its comeuppance from the new kid in town. Whether it is in the movies or in sport, the narrative of a king being usurped by a young pretender is played out time after time, and it never ceases to fascinate. We see it in business as well, and usually it is an established but slow-moving firm being disrupted by a smaller, more nimble, more agile adversary who seems to simply pull the rug from right under their feet. It is rare, however, to see mature but vibrant forces in business compete with rivals with fewer resources and lose at their own game. This is on the proverbial “level playing field”, where despite the fact all things being generally equal, you see the incumbent force outplayed and outmaneuvered by new entrants. One might expect that the established parties have better market knowledge, more reach and deeper pockets to stave off any new competition, no matter how much the neutral observer might want the underdog to give their rivals a bloody nose. But in a new era of globalization, there are new rules that have yet to be written, and it may well be that what we have seen previously has been the start of a cycle, and it might just start turning things the other way in favor of those countries that have yet to feel the full benefits of the global village.