[wccrawford]

Nice linkbait title. (That's getting really old around here lately.)

To correct it: "When Loss of Competition Stifles Innovation"

Your incentive to motivate would have been the same without competition as it is after your last competitor gives up. It's no different.

[JonathanFields]

Actually the post isn't about the effect of "lost" competition. It's about the difference between internally vs externally placed competition and how if you're driven largely by external competition, that will very likely eventually cap your creative potential.

That was the point of the post and the reason for the title.

[wccrawford]

Like I just said, it isn't the competition that's the problem. If they never lost it, the problem wouldn't have appeared. It's only after the loss of competition that there's a problem.

The very same internal pressures exist whether or not competition exists or not. This isn't about them at all.