Why Retaliation Isn't Always the Best Move
It’s time to rethink your competitive response
For most people in the business world, competition is a constant. Salary negotiations, vendor contracts, client acquisitions, resource allocation, the list goes on. But sometimes, the most strategic move is not to take action but to hold back.
This is the essence of strategic forbearance—the decision to intentionally avoid counteracting in certain situations for future gain. In today’s political and business landscape, where retaliation often seems to be the default response to every perceived challenge or threat, it’s more important than ever to consider the power of strategic forbearance.
Goce Andrevski, associate professor and Distinguished Research and Teaching Fellow of Strategy at Smith School of Business, led this free 60-minute webinar unpacking how to handle competition by knowing when to act and when to let things unfold.
This webinar was recorded live on Wednesday, April 2 at 1:00 p.m. and was presented by Smith Business Insight and Queen’s Executive Education.
Participants will explore:
- The concept of strategic forbearance and its underlying rationale
- Strategies for leveraging strategic forbearance to enhance firm performance
- How managers and entrepreneurs can assess and predict whether rivals will respond or opt for forbearance
- Examples of companies that successfully leveraged forbearance for competitive gain
This webinar is ideal for business leaders, managers, entrepreneurs and strategic decision-makers who are looking to deepen their understanding of competitive strategy and learn how to make better decisions. If you’re involved in strategic planning, competitive analysis or any decision-making, you won’t want to miss this opportunity to gain insights from one of the leading experts in the field.
Session Participants
Dr. Goce Andrevski
Goce Andrevski is an associate professor and Distinguished Faculty Fellow of Strategy at Smith School of Business, Queen's University. His research focuses on competitive strategy, competitive dynamics, alliance networks and diversity management, and has been published in many top academic journals. He has extensive consulting experience, advising executives in industries such as automotive, professional sports and government, helping them solve complex strategic and policy challenges. He teaches courses on dynamic strategy execution, and business and corporate strategy across undergraduate, graduate and MBA programs.
Aziz Garuba
Aziz is a seasoned finance and strategy professional, a diversity and inclusion advocate, a podcaster, speaker and facilitator with over 15 years of experience driving change and delivering improvements to business performance. Aziz is currently the Chief Commercial Officer for MortgageMarket, a South African fintech company democratizing access to home loans through best-in-class technology. He is the co-founder of BlackTies, and the producer and host of the podcast Made to Lead, a show that highlights Black excellence and leadership through thought-provoking success stories of amazing professionals and entrepreneurs of African descent who are leading in various industries. Aziz holds an MBA from Smith School of Business at Queen’s University. He is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CMA) and a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE). He is also a 2019 CPA Ontario Emerging Leaders Award recipient.