Monday, May 7, 2018

Word of the Day: competitive advantage

Word of the Day WhatIs.com
Daily updates on the latest technology terms |May 7, 2018
competitive advantage

Competitive advantage is the favorable position an organization seeks in order to be more profitable than its rivals. To gain and maintain a competitive advantage, an organization must be able to demonstrate a greater comparative or differential value than its competitors and convey that information to its desired target market. For example, if a company advertises a product for a price that's lower than a similar product from a competitor, that company is likely to have a competitive advantage. The same is true if the advertised product costs more, but offers unique features that customers are willing to pay for.

In the 1980s, professor Michael Porter from the Harvard Business School looked at successful businesses and created a framework for how leaders could think strategically about beating the competition. Porter suggested that companies analyze five important criteria, which Porter called the Five Forces, to gain an understanding for the competitive landscape. Once that had been achieved, he recommended the use of three generic strategies to help leadership make the best choice about which type of competitive advantage they should pursue.

Porter's Five Forces is an alternate model to SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) an analysis tool which is credited to Albert Humphrey at the Stanford Research Institute to help companies get a sense of their position within a competitive landscape. Porter taught his students at Harvard about SWOT analysis, but felt the tool had limitations because it placed too much focus on individual companies rather than on industries. Porter saw the need for a framework that also looked at the competitive landscape holistically, in the context of an entire industry. The simple framework that Porter developed for achieving a competitive advantage in the marketplace is still being taught in business schools today. Read more...

Quote of the Day

"Wasting project team time today is more significant than just a few years ago. In the current digital era, competitive advantage is based on speed." - Zeus Kerravala

 

Trending Terms

Porter's Five Forces
SWOT analysis
vertical market
strategic management
core competency
strategic innovation

 
Learning Center

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Dell EMC IT transformation central to 2018 channel strategy
The Dell EMC IT Transformation campaign, launched at the Global Partner Summit, looks to showcase the Dell Technologies portfolio and how partners can modernize IT infrastructure.

For Airbnb, data democratization is a strategic advantage
Despite a general recognition that data has business value, most companies have done little to democratize data. Then there is Airbnb data.

Embrace IT digital transformation and the new tech landscape
It's time to face IT digital transformation or risk being left behind as IT and revenue become more closely linked together.

Competitive advantages of mobile apps for customers, employees
The advantages of mobile apps for customers include higher revenue, better ad targeting and customer outreach; for employees, it means more efficiency.

Writing for Business

Digital transformation is tied to the broader trend of business transformation and takes ______ to take hold.

A. awhile

B. a while

Answer

 

Stay In Touch
For feedback about any of our definitions or to suggest a new definition, please contact me at: mrouse@techtarget.com

 

Visit the Word of the Day Archives and catch up on what you've missed!

 

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