COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
Competitive Advantage
What makes your firm stand out. In many cases competitive advantage is the key to being a successful firm in a challenging marketplace.
Introduction
In the ever-faster changing business environment that firms operate in today, it is more important than ever to craft an effective strategy to attain competitive advantage. Competitive advantage is defined as something a firm does well when compared to other firms (David, 2013). Organizations can undergo a process of examining internal and external factors to determine an effective value creating strategy. This evaluation process can help a firm identify their core competencies and where there are untapped ways to leverage them. In addition, there are many opportunities in the industry or marketplace to develop new products to satisfy unmet customer needs.
This website was created as a tool to be used by middle managers that are serving on a task force to help the organization evaluate the firm’s strategy and to make recommendations about future competitive advantage decisions. Examples of competitive advantage principles being used in a variety of industries will be presented. These examples will help planners see how other organizations have used competitive advantage principles to advance their firms.
There are three basic types of competitive advantage strategy on the business level:
Cost Leadership
Differentiation
Focus
On a corporate level there are additional competitive advantage strategies:
Diversification
Mergers and Acquisitions
Integration
Alliances
Value Creating Strategy
Conclusions
Synthesis
Susan la Fiandra Reid
Marymount University
MGT 526: Strategic Management Seminar
Spring 2013
Professor Guillermo Rivero
What makes your firm stand out. In many cases competitive advantage is the key to being a successful firm in a challenging marketplace.
Introduction
In the ever-faster changing business environment that firms operate in today, it is more important than ever to craft an effective strategy to attain competitive advantage. Competitive advantage is defined as something a firm does well when compared to other firms (David, 2013). Organizations can undergo a process of examining internal and external factors to determine an effective value creating strategy. This evaluation process can help a firm identify their core competencies and where there are untapped ways to leverage them. In addition, there are many opportunities in the industry or marketplace to develop new products to satisfy unmet customer needs.
This website was created as a tool to be used by middle managers that are serving on a task force to help the organization evaluate the firm’s strategy and to make recommendations about future competitive advantage decisions. Examples of competitive advantage principles being used in a variety of industries will be presented. These examples will help planners see how other organizations have used competitive advantage principles to advance their firms.
There are three basic types of competitive advantage strategy on the business level:
Cost Leadership
Differentiation
Focus
On a corporate level there are additional competitive advantage strategies:
Diversification
Mergers and Acquisitions
Integration
Alliances
Value Creating Strategy
Conclusions
Synthesis
Susan la Fiandra Reid
Marymount University
MGT 526: Strategic Management Seminar
Spring 2013
Professor Guillermo Rivero