The reason why some companies lose their track with the competition is that they never change their existing products or services. Once, people are already accustomed to your product they will be looking for the next best thing from you.
4. Target a certain group of buyers.
Back to the idea of focus, we have to target a specific group of buyers. Forget about the big markets. Unless you're a huge corporation with unlimited funds and are a household brand name, then you need to be targeting small niches within these markets. In niche markets, you can quickly dominate and develop expert status.
These are just few strategies but the most important thing is to work on not being the cheapest, but being the best. You can never fully compete with cheap, but you should be able to match customer service every time. With the right ideas and implementation, a company can withstand the pressures of any competitor.