Throw a Party and Invite the Competition

In my past life I started an institutional FX brokerage desk for a new business here in Dubai.

It was during the financial and Dubai debt crises and many told us we had no business starting such a desk and that we would fail.

But we were fearless

And we banked on the fact that our much bigger and better resourced competitors had one weakness we could exploit.

They were fat and lazy.. and didn’t appreciate the living they were making from the commissions of their clients.

We were hungry and we appreciated what the clients gave us.

And so we threw a party.

An enormous beach bash where we invited every bank in the UAE to join us.

At the same time we were opening trading lines with the major Saudi Banks.

And we invited them also to the party. But they spoke to a competitor of ours who was not fat or lazy.

In fact his team were very well regarded and respected.

This particular Saudi Bank asked us if they could bring our competitor along to the party.

Yes I said.. with no hesitation.

And so the bank came and brought our competition and we had a great time with both of them.

As they said goodbye the main boss of the competitor and biggest earner in the market shook our hands.

“I’m retiring soon but it won’t be the younger guys in my business or the other ones in the established houses that will take over…. It will be you guys…”

And it came to pass..

I shared the point of this story in our Advisory session on Delegation yesterday and I’ll share with you the point of this story tomorrow.