Score early; chances of future success is higher

If there is one thing that the World Cup has taught me is that those who score early usually win the match. There is nothing more devastating than conceding a goal early in the match to your opponent. Conceding that goal not only upsets you and your team's demeanor but also sends you into panic mode for the rest of the game. Moreover, that one-up is even more devastating if it comes from a less well-known team.

I guess it's the same with business. The company that strikes first usually dominate the market (at least while there is a market for that particular item). It does not matter whether you have the most superior product around; what matters is who gets it out to the consumer first. Once the other team has gotten that advantage, you have a lot of catching up to do. And no matter how much catching up you do, you must realize that your opponent can easily score another against you. You did not expect your opponent to actually wait for you to catch up, did you?

Under such dire situations, what actions should the company take to help even out the playing field? Again, let's take a football analogy to things.

• Home ground advantage
  Depending on where you set up your business, there might be certain policies that might give you an edge. For instance, in some countries, you can be exempted from certain taxes for the first few months. Also, some countries encourage foreign companies by enticing them with a cheap work force. So, by choosing your location wisely, you might be able to gain an advantage over your opponent.
• Yellow card/ red card
  In business, you never know when one of your competitors might have to pull out because of some unrelated reasons (read: management or politics). Or similarly, you never know when you or your opponent might get sued and have to remove something from their product. Such risks must be taken into account and might come in your favor.
• Naturalized players
  Some football teams try to entice foreign players to play for them by giving them automatic citizenship. This is a hard offer to resist especially if your own country is not politically stable. So, in business, you can also do the same: entice the best people to come work for you!
• What the referee cannot see, he cannot book you for
  It's true. Usually the referee will miss a couple of offenses because he cannot see it from his position. The same goes for business practices. Some shoddy practices go unnoticed either because no one sees it or someone paid a lot of money to keep the authorities quiet. I am not saying that this is the right thing to do but this really happens in the real world.
• Play like there is no tomorrow
  Simple. If you are on the verge of losing, just risk everything you have. Some miracle might happen or it might not. However, you will give you opponents a fight that they will not forget anytime soon. Also, it keeps them busy so they cannot launch a well thought out plan against you.

This is probably a weird entry. So blame it on the overdose of the Fifa World Cup.