The document discusses potential "nightmare competitors" for a corporate general counsel department. It identifies five types of nightmare competitors: 1) A Bargain competitor that focuses on legal assignments with efficiency gains potential. 2) A Unique Value competitor that helps clients seize opportunities and has lawyers with business backgrounds. 3) A Choice competitor that makes the legal services market transparent. 4) An Ultimate Want competitor that enables clients to make decisions without consulting general counsel. 5) An Access competitor that gives access to customers not addressed by the industry. Each type is described in terms of targeted customers, opportunities, approach, and example role models.

1. Rocking Business Innovation | 1© NC-Creators Nightmare Competitor Workshop | 1Uli Grothe and Mat Lock ©2016
Case: The Nightmare Competitor
of Corporate Functions

2. Rocking Business Innovation | 2© NC-Creators
Can corporate functions be threatened by Nightmare Competitors? The head
of a corporate function asked us this question. She had participated in an
Nightmare Competitor assignment to come up with new business ideas for her
company and also wanted to look at her department through a different lens.
She asked us to develop potential Nightmare Competitors for her General
Counsel.
The questions to be answered were: What Nightmare Competitors could satisfy
our internal customers with offerings we do not provide today? Which of our
internal clients would such a Nightmare Competitor address? How would his
set-up differ from ours? Could such a Nightmare Competitors replace us?
What do we need to do to be first?

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Ensure
compliance
Risks
evaluation &
avoidance
Legal reporting
Litigation
Contract
management
Lawyers
Engagement
of law firms
Autonomy Lump sum cost
allocation
High Importance
Medium Importance
Low Importance
Conventional
General Counsel
Customer: All other functions
General Counsels are set-up to take
care of all legal aspects relevant for
their organization

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A Bargain Nightmare Competitor would
focus solely on legal assignments that
bare room for efficiency gains
Automation/
Empowerment
Load sharing
between
companies
Offshoring/use
of non-lawyers
Legal
reporting
Engagement
of law firms
Autonomy
Lump sum
cost allocation
Lawyers
Ensure
Compliance
Contract
management
Risks
evaluation
and
avoidance
Litigation/
take action
Decomposition
of cases
(Lower) Cost/
case
High Importance
Medium Importance
Low Importance
Bargain NC
Customer: Internal Clients
with tight budgets
Conventional
General Counsel
Customer: All other functions

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A Unique Value Nightmare
Competitor would focus on helping
internal clients to seize opportunities
Ensure
compliance
Risks
evaluation &
avoidance
Legal reporting
Litigation
Contract
management
Lawyers
Engagement
of law firms
Autonomy Lump sum cost
allocation
Seizing
opportunities
Lawyers with
business
(innovation)
background
Reporting
illustrating
opportunities
Strong online
and data
management
competence
Partner in
strategic
decision
making
Own integrity
standards
High Importance
Medium Importance
Low Importance
Unique Value NC
Conventional
General Counsel
Customer: All other functions
Customer: Units dealing with
Business Innovation

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We also saw a chance for a Choice NC making the market for legal services
transparent. Internal Customers could easily find specific legal support outside the
company Unique
Value
NC
Bargain
NC
Choice
NC
Ultimate
Want
NC
Access
NC
• The bored ones
• The ones who need
new kicks
• The established spend
a lot on marketing but
customers are
nevertheless not loyal
• Offers an altered
product in a
proprietary system
• Tesla, Apple, Zara,
Starbucks
• The overshot
• Notorious penny
pinchers
• Industries compete on
the frequency of product
launches and
functionalities
• Reduces the offerings,
streamlines processes
• Fosters modularity and
reusability
• Cuts marketing cost
• Ikea, Aldi, SpaceX,
Ryanair, Motel One,
Mindray, Dacia
• The ones who see choice
and transparency as
parts of their fundamental
rights
• Industries are not ready
to grant the choice
customers expect
• Provide a platform
comprising the offerings
of the important market
players
• Amazon, Craigslist,
Pairship, Moovel,
AutoScout24, Uber,
Expedia, Agoda, Alibaba,
kloeckner.i
• The ones who see the
industry’s offering as
workarounds
• The industry is
extremely product
oriented
• Provide a service or a
product designed from
the customer
backwards
• Dürr, Kuka, SolarCity,
Webasto, Amazon
Elastic Cloud
Compute, Red Bull,
Spotify, Double
Robotics
• The ones overlooked or
purposely not
addressed by the
industry
• Industries do not
question the boundaries
of their customer
definition anymore
• Designs a business
model that allows to
give the excluded
access
• Kieser, Nintendo,
Waymo, klickrent,
Airbnb, NetJets, Drivy
Targeted
customers:
Sees his
chance when:
What he
does:
Role Models:

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We also saw a chance for an Ultimate Want NC enabling clients to make decisions
without a need to consult a General Counsel
Unique
Value
NC
Bargain
NC
Choice
NC
Ultimate
Want
NC
Access
NC
• The bored ones
• The ones who need
new kicks
• The established spend
a lot on marketing but
customers are
nevertheless not loyal
• Offers an altered
product in a
proprietary system
• Tesla, Apple, Zara,
Starbucks
• The overshot
• Notorious penny
pinchers
• Industries compete on
the frequency of product
launches and
functionalities
• Reduces the offerings,
streamlines processes
• Fosters modularity and
reusability
• Cuts marketing cost
• Ikea, Aldi, SpaceX,
Ryanair, Motel One,
Mindray, Dacia
• The ones who see choice
and transparency as
parts of their fundamental
rights
• Industries are not ready
to grant the choice
customers expect
• Provide a platform
comprising the offerings
of the important market
players
• Amazon, Craigslist,
Pairship, Moovel,
AutoScout24, Uber,
Expedia, Agoda, Alibaba,
kloeckner.i
• The ones who see the
industry’s offering as
workarounds
• The industry is
extremely product
oriented
• Provide a service or a
product designed from
the customer
backwards
• Dürr, Kuka, SolarCity,
Webasto, Amazon
Elastic Cloud
Compute, Red Bull,
Spotify, Double
Robotics
• The ones overlooked or
purposely not
addressed by the
industry
• Industries do not
question the boundaries
of their customer
definition anymore
• Designs a business
model that allows to
give the excluded
access
• Kieser, Nintendo,
Waymo, klickrent,
Airbnb, NetJets, Drivy
Targeted
customers:
Sees his
chance when:
What he
does:
Role Models:

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Go to slideshare.net to download core elements of the Nightmare Competitor
Approach

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