Applying the Contingency Management Theory - Essay Example

the company has continued to record successes for a very long time since 1958. However, Ayling (1995) also wrote about additional parameters that determine success in a competitive market and mentioned the market segment or the structure of the market where the competition is taking place. In this instance, two major markets are identified, which are local and global markets. Indeed, for most of the time before, Apex Engineering saw itself only engaged in local competition, where it was rated as the market’s second, only next to Coopers in the manufacturing of marine crane builders. Out of nowhere, however, Apex Engineering now finds itself engaged in the global competitive market with several international competitors entering the market. Interestingly, in a perfect competition market such as the one that Apex is currently finding itself in, rather than a monopoly market, the competitiveness of the market does not make it possible for competitors to dance to the tunes that favor their opponents.
In perfect competition, it is the business of opponents to read and know what creates a competitive advantage for competitors and try to strategize their business operations to meet such competitive advantage (Adamson, Doherty, and Viney, 1998). Currently, Apex Engineering has identified the problem it is faced within its new competitive global market, and that is an inability to catch up with competitors on the lines of cost and innovation. Competitors have used cost and innovation as two key strategies to gain a competitive advantage against Apex Engineering. Meanwhile, because perfect competition markets are made up of many firms and sellers with abundant substitute products for consumers to select from, it takes only firms that have a competitive advantage to command market share as consumers always tend to prefer these organizations to that of their opponents. Until now, Apex Engineering has lost a lot of market share but is not totally out of business. This means that there remains much more optimization and management change that can be done.