Business success has some odd definitions these days, and too many business leaders forget they are in competitions Dear Bob …In a recent Advice Line, you said, “The key to more volume is market share, which has the additional benefits of taking market share away from competitors” (emphasis mine).[ See the previous column: “Why margin isn’t a good metric” | Get sage advice on IT careers and management from Bob Lewis in InfoWorld’s Advice Line newsletter. ] What are those additional benefits? I understand the benefits of volume and that it sometimes will be obtained by taking market share from competitors. However, taking market share from competitors for its own sake sounds a bit like cruelty. It seems to me like the difference between a pitcher throwing at a batter’s head to move him away from the plate and make it harder to reach the outside pitch vs. throwing at a batter’s head for the purpose of hurting him.– Kinder and gentler Dear K&G … Interesting you should ask — I have read about and talked to a surprising number of business leaders who also don’t see competition as a win/lose proposition.I see the two as synonymous: If you’re competing, that means you’re going after the same customers and money, because customers are going to choose only one of you to buy from.There are companies that pursue only what are called “missionary sales,” which means they develop and sell products that constitute brand-new concepts and have no competitors. That lasts only until the missionary products are successful. Once they succeed, competing products spring up to try to carve out some of the market for themselves. Put it differently: Every market is finite. That makes market share a zero-sum game.– Bob Technology Industry