How to obtain Competitive Advantage

Ask yourself the following question:”Am I the envy of my competitors?“If the answer is anything other than a resounding “YES” then there is a high likelihood of the company not having a competitive advantage in the market place.

I define competitive advantage as:

“A unique combination of all known attributes, universal or derived, that attribute towards superior performance.”

Having competitive advantage is a good start. However, competitive advantage needs to be sustainable if success is desired. Companies gain competitive advantage by utilizing one or more of the following:

1. Price
2. Breadth of Products and Services
3. Operations
4. Marketing
5. Workforce
6. Client Servicing

Price:

Price positioning is often a commonly used strategy where there is a lot of competition. Many companies constantly monitor their competition’s prices and not only try to match but beat prices. Consumers are winners in this scenario but many times quality suffers. Customer loyalty is the lowest. Walmart is a good example.

Breadth of Products and Services:

A company can obtain competitive advantage by offering a variety of products in the same category. Rather than being specialist, the company gains advantage by being a generalist. Proctor & Gamble is a good example.

Operations:

How the company operates its business and streamlines its operations can be also a very big competitive advantage. Many companies continue to optimize operations and limit activities that do not produce the desired results. Toyota is a good example.

Marketing:

Product and service placement can also attribute towards a company’s competitive advantage. Traditional media advertising, Internet only, targeting the high net worth, frequency of the campaign, etc. are a few ways companies can gain advantage over their competition. McDonald’s is a good example.

Workforce:

The quality and capability of human capital of a company can also be a competitive advantage. Companies that value one’s workforce and provide the right tools necessary to support the activities of their staff many-a-times gain competitive advantage over their competition. Google is a good example.

Client Servicing:

Processes and activities focused on customer issues be a great competitive advantage. This generates customer satisfaction and loyalty for the long run. Starbucks is a good example.

Use this information and identify your competive advantage.

Good Luck.

Tiill next time….

Sal

http://www.salmankkhan.coom/

http://salmankkhan.blogspot.com/

Too many things to do? Where to start?

Often when we plan a project we list a lot of things to do in order to accomplish that project. However, when we get down to doing the tasks, many-a-times we get confused on where to start.

Everything needs to get done! Everything looks important. Sometimes this can be a big hurdle for many people. The tasks can be overwhelming. Here is a quick way for you to get a jump start if you face this issue.

After listing your tasks, prioritize them. This means list your tasks in the order that they need to get done. This is NOT the order that you want to complete each task; rather this is the way the tasks should be done in order for a successful completion of the project.

Once you have the priority of the tasks set, the next thing to do is to focus on the first task and just start! Don’t think….just start.

Once you complete that task. Look at the priority list again, re-order if necessary (though most of the times this remains constant) then move on to the next one.

Repeat this process till all the tasks are completed.