I just got my most recent copy of the Harvard Business Review, and there is a lengthy interview with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in it. Here’s what he had to say about competition:

“We don’t ignore competitors; we try to stay alert to what they are doing… But a lot of our energy and drive as a company, as a culture, comes from trying to build… customer focused strategies… I think they work better in fast-changing environments”.

I believe many companies spend too much time setting strategy against what their competitors are doing—especially in large organizations like banks. One of the things I love about FreshBooks is our proximity to our customers. Everyone on our team answers the phone, replies to e-mail and is in contact with our customers, and we make decisions and set strategies based on the close relationships we have with our community.

When people ask us about competition, from now on I’m going to direct them to this post.