Looking at things from a different point of view is always a good practice to have. It allows you to be more open to innovative ideas and helps you to identify new ways to improve yourself.

For the next 30 minutes to an hour, put yourself into one of your competitor’s shoes and look at everything from their perspective. Ask yourself the following questions and write down your answers.

If you were them…

What would you think is your greatest asset?
How would you communicate that to your target customers?
What weaknesses would you want to hide at all costs?
What would you consider to be your key areas of focus?
What parts of the industry would you not care about?
Who would consider to be your main competitor?
Besides competitors, what would you consider to be your biggest threats?
How would you do to respond to those threats?
What would be your plans for the future?
What would you be investing in to make that happen?

After you’re done, reflect on what you learned and work on identifying ways to defend against their strengths, attack their weaknesses, exploit their threats and leverage their opportunities to your advantage.

BONUS: Hopefully you have answers to all of these questions for your own company. But if you don’t, now’s a good time to start thinking about it.