Most organizations let competitive intel reach everyone. Wooden didn't—and he won 10 championships.
Competitive intelligence is supposed to inform strategy, but it often consumes it instead.
In sales, teams arm themselves with battle cards and kill sheets, then lead with competitive framing in conversations where the buyer wasn't even thinking about competitors. You've introduced competition that wasn't there, and conversations spiral into feature parity debates and future gap analysis until the deal stalls.
In brand building, leadership teams lament that "nobody knows who we are" while spending energy watching what competitors do instead of executing what they're known for. Millions go to events, PR, and positioning, but the strategy is reactive. Something gets built because a competitor built it, not because it's strength-adjacent.
The pattern is the same: attention pointed outward instead of inward. Execution gets replaced by reaction.
John Wooden won 10 NCAA championships in 12 years, making him the most successful coach in college basketball history. His teams faced fierce competitors, and his staff scouted extensively.
But his players never saw the scouting reports.
Wooden filtered competitive information away from the people responsible for execution. They knew one thing: execute what you've trained to do. The opponent didn't change the game plan.
Wooden didn't ignore competitors. He just decided who got to see the scouting reports—and who didn't.
When competitive intel saturates the organization, people start watching competitors instead of executing. Competitor moves trigger reactive decisions. And eventually, you define yourself by what you're not—instead of what you are.
Here's the test:
Competitor-driven work pulls you into their frame, while strength-adjacent work compounds what's already working. One path leads to differentiation theater and the other builds a brand.
Battle cards have their place, but if your sales team leads with competitive positioning, they're introducing a fight the buyer may not have been looking for.
When your team can tell your story cold, they stop needing competitor comparisons as a crutch.
"Nobody knows who we are" is rarely solved by more competitive positioning. It's solved by executing your strengths consistently and visibly.
Questions to pressure-test:
If the answer to that last question is no, you're not looking at strategy. You're looking at reaction.
| From | To |
|---|---|
| Competitive saturation | Filtered intelligence |
| Reaction-driven strategy | Strength-adjacent execution |
| Battle card dependence | Story fluency |
| "Beat competitor X" | "Execute what we've trained to do" |
Audit where competitive intel flows. If it reaches everyone, you've created an organization that watches instead of executes, so filter it.
Invest in story fluency over battle card volume. Can your team talk for ten minutes about what makes you special without mentioning a competitor?
Before greenlighting work, ask: "Would we do this if the competitor didn't exist?" If the answer is no, reconsider.
The Wooden Test is one lens on competitive focus. For a full diagnostic on whether your organization is pointed at competitors or customers, work through Better Not Different, which includes the Language Audit, Attention Audit, and Specificity Test.