When a Competitor Gives Away What You Are Selling

On Nov. 15 came the announcement of the new Google Base service that will allow people to upload just about anything they want at no cost, and their messages will be searchable on Google Search, Google Local and Froogle.

A Google spokesman told Eleanor Mills of news.com that much of the information in Google Base is expected to be non-commercial, and denied it was going into the classified business.

Go to base.google.com and you will find automobiles for sale, home rentals and sales, computer equipment, businesses offering their services, and an online mall.

Google Base is very much in the classified business.

And it's all free.

Takeaway Points to Consider

• Who are your competitors? What can they do to put you out of business? Do you have plans in place that will enable you to survive and prosper?

• What can you do to put your competitors out of business--or at least increase your market share?

• Are your products and services absolutely leading edge? Or are you in the legacy business--such as the Inquirer print job postings--that may be profitable now, but about to be eclipsed by new technology and marketing innovations?

• If so, should you invest in bringing them up to state-of-the-art? If you don't, a competitor will.

• Always remember General Motors. It greedily bet its future on gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs without contingency plans in case of a huge run-up in oil prices. Of the sales price of every car it sells, $1,500 goes to pay for employee and retiree health care, and it is forced to give huge rebates in order to move merchandise off the lots. GM, mired in an impossible business model, announced this past week the cutting of 30,000 jobs and closing of 12 facilities in order to stave off bankruptcy, which may be in its future.