Competitive advantage is achieved when an organization has an edge over its competitors when attracting buyers. Some organizations have an advantage simply because they are the best-known organization or brand in the market. Some organizations have the lowest price whilst others provide the best support and service in the industry. In the long run,
the only sustainable competitive advantage is an organization’s ability to learn faster than the competition.
Steps:
Learn from your competition and your customers. Learning from your competition does not mean copying everything they do. If you copy your competitors, you’re still one-step behind. However, if you analyze each move your competition makes, and then understand why they made that move, you’ll prevent yourself from missing out on lucrative opportunities.
Stay on the cutting edge. Once you’ve gained a competitive advantage, your work is far from complete. To be successful, you will need to continuously maintain your competitive advantage. After all, your competitors are not going to sit back and allow you to steal their market share. You can maintain your competitive advantage by predicting future trends in your industry, constantly researching and monitoring your competitors, and adapting to your customer’s wants and needs. Sometimes you may need to take chances to keep ahead of the pack and differentiate your business, but with big risk often comes big reward – Just remember to do your research before diving head first into new ideas.
Use business information resources. With the emergence of social media, it’s easy to see what people say about your competition. When you analyze what those people say, you can find one of two things: 1) a thread of discontent and/or 2) a success story. When you look at each of those under a microscope, opportunities for new products and differentiation arise out of thin air.
References:
Porter, M. E. (1985), The Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance, New York: Free Press
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