Here’s what most people get wrong about Ryanair’s success story.
Everyone thinks Michael O’Leary cracked the code by studying his competition and undercutting their prices. That’s backwards. Ryanair nearly went bankrupt in 1992 doing exactly that—trying to beat British Airways at their own game with “great service and lower prices.”
The turnaround happened when O’Leary stopped looking at his competitors and started studying Southwest Airlines instead. Not as competition, but as a completely different strategic model. Southwest wasn’t just cheaper—they served underserved markets, used secondary airports, and built an entirely different cost structure around routes like Dallas Love Field instead of DFW.
O’Leary didn’t just read about Southwest from afar. He flew to the US, met Herb Kelleher, and according to legend, got so drunk he passed out—only to wake up at 3 AM and find Kelleher reaching for another serving of his favorite Wild Turkey. That’s the kind of immersion you need to truly understand how someone thinks.
(Well, I don’t mean immerse yourself in alcohol… but you get the point.)
O’Leary took that insight and ran with it. Dublin to London Luton instead of Heathrow. Paris Beauvais instead of Charles de Gaulle. He wasn’t competing for the same customers anymore—he was creating a new category.
Look around today and you’ll see the same strategic blindness everywhere. Food delivery apps copying each other’s UI features instead of studying Amazon’s logistics mastery. Fintech startups mimicking each other’s dashboards instead of learning from traditional banking’s risk management principles. Gym chains copying each other’s pricing models instead of studying how Netflix built subscription loyalty.
The pattern is always the same: companies get hypnotized by what their direct competitors are doing and completely miss the real strategic lessons hiding in other industries.
Your competition shows you what’s already been tried. Studying adjacent successes shows you what’s actually possible.
When everyone’s looking in the same direction, the opportunity is probably behind you.