In the Second Punic War Hannibal of Carthage had defeated Rome on Roman turf using The Pincer Movement. After this defeat the Romans sought revenge and in 202 BC raised an army and marched on Carthage to exact it. The Roman army was led by Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus who had just been elected Consul of Rome (i.e. their leader). Rome has in a bad position, Hannibal had invaded Italy and conquered most of it and the Romans were helpless to stop him. Instead of confronting his army in Italy Scipio decided to invade Carthage itself forcing Hannibal to cross the Mediterranean Sea in haste. Having studied Hannibal’s tactics during his decisive victory at the Battle of Cannae, Scipio sought to utilize a similar strategy building up a strong cavalry and gaining more cavalary with his allies. As the two forces met in battle the Roman cavalry and their allies defeated the Carthaginian cavalry and chased them from the battlefield, when they returned they performed a Pincer Movement swinging in from each flank and attacking the strong Carthaginian third-line from the rear. This brought a victory for Rome along with humiliating terms of surrender for Carthage and Hannibal even though they had previously appeared to secure an enormous victory.

Mirror Strategy is best performed when you’re outmatched and unsure how to plunge forward. Often times simply mimicking the actions of your competitors can lead to victory or success. In Rome’s case having a general that was able to learn the enemies double-envelopment and use it against them allowed them to continue existing and dominating the region for hundreds of years.

It’s unlikely that copying your competitors moves will bring you a strong victory in today’s fast-moving technology world, but it may very well at least set you up for a good level of success. One look at tech giants and you can see they often copy the moves of others they believe will forward their ability to build a user base and generate revenue, with varying degrees of success. Mirror Strategy is extremely popular among small businesses which can more easily replicate the steps their local competition has taken to reach success.

Pros vs. Cons
Pros: Without having any knowledge of strategy or even a market, you can leverage Mirror Strategy to gain market share and start generating revenue with a good degree of effectiveness.

Cons: Too much copying of your competitors can lead to a lack of originality and differentiation leading to long-term failure as the competition finds ways to innovate.