Competitive Strategy : Competitive Advantage Essay

Porter's generic strategies framework constitutes a major contribution to the development of the strategic management literature. Generic strategies were first presented in two books by Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School (Porter, 1980, 1985). Porter (1980, 1985) suggested that some of the most basic choices faced by companies are essentially the scope of the markets that the company would serve and how the company would compete in the selected markets. Competitive strategies focus on ways in which a company can achieve the most advantageous position that it possibly can in its industry (Pearson, 1999). The profit of a company is essentially the difference between its revenues and costs. Therefore high

Thompson, A. A., Peteraf, M. A., Gamble, J. E., & Strickland III, A. (2012). Crafting and executing strategy the quest for competitive advantage concepts

This report consults literature from a range of academic resources in order to provide an understanding of strategy, strategic management and how firms achieve and sustain a competitive advantage. The paper will focus on Generic strategies implemented by firms in industry, low cost and differentiation.

According to Porter (1985) a company can apply three generic types of strategies to protect itself while competitive force is a key issue of the management. To achieve this position a strategy based on competency must be accomplished

A competitive advantage is what differentiate you from the competitors in the eyes of your customers. Whether you are an employee, a business or a country, you need to have an adequate competitive advantage and deliver it to your customers. Before you can set your competitive advantage, you had to find out these three imperatives(Aaker, D. 1989):

Managers generally consider the rivalry among competitors as a major source for deriving strategy. As explained by the Michael Porter it is a narrow view of competition. A set of other parameters should be evaluated, mentioned in article as five competitive forces, along with industry structure, which affect the competition within an industry. These forces also impact the profitability of any industry. Different industries have different structure and different competitive forces which will affect the industry average of return on capital invested. Executives should do detailed analysis of different competitive forces and their strength at industry level and shape strategy to take advantages of these forces by positioning organization where forces are weak, exploit changes in the forces and reshape the forces in organizations favor. The five competitive forces that shape the strategy are threat of entry, power of suppliers, power of buyers, threat of substitute products or services, and rivalry among existing competitors.

Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) is currently one of the fastest growing companies here in the Charleston, SC area for the past few years.

Competitive business strategies facilitate a firm to sell or produce products and services with more efficiency and with the sole aim of having a competitive advantage over their competitors (Mandarini, 2014). There are a variety of business strategies that are used by managers as they have choices between using set standard strategies or creating their own set of strategies and therefore it

The Government is involved in almost everything that everyone does. They intervene in the business and personal lives of people all over the world. They put rules and regulations in place to help control certain aspects of the business and help the public in a way. Obesity has becoming one of the fastest growing problems with Americans due to the health and diets that there are in America. The government has invited McDonald’s by the Department of Health to help write government policy on obesity, alcohol and diet-related disease. The government has also helped ban bad oils and other ingredients in fast foods to reduce the health problems with heart disease, high cholesterol, and other problems that lead to obesity. The government is trying to control what we can and cannot eat. The government is trying to ban toys in the Happy Meals and considering passing other laws and regulations, taxes, and initiatives to limit how these restaurants prepare their foods. In Seattle and other restaurants in other states are required to post calorie information for all meals served. These rules have also lead to increasing taxes on sodas and fattening foods to prevent people from purchasing them anymore and making healthier choices.

Competitive advantage is a very general but genuine term in the present business market. The business market is very competitive. One has to be very unique as well as customer satisfying in order to sustain in the market for the long run. “A competitive advantage is an advantage gained over competitors by offering customers greater value, either through lower prices or by providing additional benefits and service that justify similar, or possibly higher, prices” (Ehmke, 2008). (Porter, 2008) “Competitive Advantage introduces the concept of the value chain, a general framework for thinking strategically about the activities involved in any business and assessing their relative cost and role in differentiation.” It can be in various aspects of

Competitive strategies are also very important for the survival of a firm. Michael Porter proposes three “generic” competitive strategies for outperforming other corporations in a particular industry, those are overall cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. These strategies are generic because they can be pursued by any type or size of business firm, even

Porter set out to define a strategic model to which all companies conform. He maintained that failing to fit into one of his pre-defined categories “the firm stuck in the middle is almost guaranteed low profitability.” (Porter, 1980). The pre-defined categories are noted in appendix 1.

Competitive advantages are conditions that permit an organization or nation to deliver a decent or administration at a lower cost or in a more alluring manner for clients. These conditions permit the gainful element to produce a bigger number of offers or unrivaled edges than its opposition. Competitive advantages are ascribed to an assortment of components, including cost structure, mark, nature of item offerings, dispersion and system, licensed innovation and customer support. Samsung had settled on the choice to receive design as a wellspring of competitive advantage in the 1990s. Prior, the company 's items had been unsatisfying and undifferentiated. In the mid1990s, the Group administrator, Kun-Hee Lee, started Samsung 's change from a low-end OEM into a world-class gadgets organization. Honing the company 's design aptitudes was a critical part of the activity. Be that as it may, this required significant changes in culture, procedures, and frameworks inside the organization. Samsung understood that competitive advantage can be accomplished through the design innovation. Samsung 's voyage toward design greatness began in 1993. That year, Lee supposedly went by a gadgets store in Los Angeles, USA. He saw, sadly, that the Samsung items in plain view looked ugly, while the results of Sony and some different organizations looked a great deal all the more engaging. He discovered too that the business staff at the store were themselves overlooking the Samsung

Competitive strategies are long term plans/steps by which an organization achieves a competitive advantage in the market over its rivals.

Competitive strategy of an organisation involves generating a competitive advantage, increase the loyalty of the customer and beat competitors. In short it can be said that it is a move to bring more customers, retaining the competitive pressure and strengthen an organisation market’s position.