On the heels of one of the world’s largest blackouts, India is looking for new solutions to its population’s need for energy. A lot of finger pointing has gone on in the aftermath of the two-day power outage that left over 600 million in the sweltering heat without any a/c. Some have even blamed India’s power grid failure on the growing demand for a/c. As government officials and special interest groups have rallied around the unfortunate incident to push their own agendas, one American company is jumping on the alternative energy for India bandwagon and planning for a massive solar field in the country.

Instead of selling the country the solar equipment and risk being beaten by competitors, First Solar Inc., Tempe, Ariz., is going to make the investment into its own solar field and then sell the energy back to India. At least that is the plan according to a report from Bloomberg.

This got me thinking, “I wonder if there is a way for contractors to work around their competitors instead of trying to directly compete?” Think about it. Instead of attempting to solve the problem that is your competition, what if there was a way for you to completely remove the competition from the equation? Theoretically the problem would then be solved because it no longer exists.

This is going to take some creative thinking on your part and perhaps it can’t be done. I think you will be amazed, however, at what you come up with when you try to solve your business’ problems by asking new and different questions.

Let me know what you come up with in the comments section below.