21st Century Competitive Advantage Is No Longer about What You Do but How You Do It - Literature review Example

21st Century Competitive Advantage Is No Longer About ‘What’ You Do But ‘How’ You Do It! Table of Contents Introduction 3 The 21st Century Definitionof Competitive Advantage 5 Why Having a Goal Isnt Sufficient to achieve Competitive Advantage in the 21st Century 7 Where Do Contemporary Organisations Often Lack when Targeting Competitive Advantages 10 Critical Justification 14 Recommendations 17 Conclusion 19 References 21 Introduction Today, in the 21st century, civilisation has find itself on a non-sustainable passage; a passage that unless is improved can result in upheaval of overwhelming outcome. Simultaneously, people and organisations are unravelling difficult new abilities in terms of competitive advantages, which can result in stimulating lives and modern civilisations. Present century is characterised by flood of information, unparalleled transparency and growing interconnectedness between nations and organisations. Furthermore, due to globalisation, the international independence is dramatically reshaping the present world, the commercial world and the lives of individuals. Therefore, the rules of traditional times are no longer applicable in the 21st century. The present century is regarded as the “Era of Behaviour’ where the old rules have transformed fundamentally. Subsequently, in order to gain competitive advantages, ‘what you do’ does not matter any longer, rather ‘how you do’ matters the most (Seidman, 2011). In present day’s connected and transparent world, people and organisations stand in order to achieve new thoughts and dynamism. Whereas, organisational leaders once concentrated on having a goal and to align the employees in liaison with the goals, present leaders necessitate to fundamentally reconsider the very characteristics of how organisations perform and how the employees undertake commercial activities. The contemporary leaders are thus, trained to set the organisational tone in such a way so that it can motivate the employees and unleash the shared understanding. In embracing leadership with such a viewpoint, organisations can develop and evolve to a purpose based competitive business, which is comprehensibly sustained by value enhancement for employees, customers, business associates, investors and the society. Nowadays, the organisations that hold mutual values, trust and deep obligations to the purpose based mission, will associate themselves as victors in the new reality (Friedman, 2007). Several disrupting events along with changes in international outlines in the area of economy, politics and various dimensions of human affairs have viciously exposed outdated norms that undermined the health and stability of organisations. In the new realities, organisations require to struggle for developing values for the customers, employees and other stakeholders. The developing individual approaches, individualities and loyalties along with technological advancement is altering the way people work and socialise; hence are challenging how organisations administer themselves and function as a cooperative force. Furthermore, the evolving personal prospects, determinations and objectives are undoing the traditional connection between organisations and employees, therefore questioning about the mechanisms applied by the organisations to keep the employees involved, committed and stimulated towards the determined goals. The frequency of disruptive changes in the international market, coupled with evolving uncertainty surrounding international geopolitics, economic trends and the role of government in business are also increasing the pressure on how organisations can finance their strategies and how they can catalyse innovation. Communication technologies are disbanding the obstacles as well, between public and private life, which is altering and making it increasingly challenging for organisations to transmit the business services to the customers, investors and other external partners and shareholders. These forces have made the tasks of organisations much complex than before as they are altering the method traditional organisations used to perform in order to succeed. However, the new paradigm necessitates new method for corporate growth, resiliency and innovation that reframes the emphasis from ‘what’ to ‘how’ people conduct business activities. Ultimately, the sustainability of the organisations, nations and the entire world lies in ‘how’ (LRN Corporation, n.d.). The 21st Century Definition of Competitive Advantage In the current competitive and active business environment, having competitive advantage has become central objective for organisations. Foon & Nair (2010) stated that for long-run survival, simply certifying above average performance is inadequate and thus, it has become a necessary requirement for organisations to obtain the desired level of competitive advantages. Generally, competitive advantages have been described as benefits one organisation has over its competitors in a specific market. However, in the 21st century, sustainable competitive advantage has emerged as one of the key aspects for organisations. Sustainability in this context do not signify advantages for a specific period of time, neither does it infer advantages that persist forever; rather, it relies on the likelihood and the degree of competitive repetition. In modern day scenario, possessing competitive advantage is not the only goal of an organisation, but to sustain to such advantage is more significant and vital for them (Foon & Nair, 2010). In the 21st century, new competitive setting is taking shape on the basis of technological revolution and increasing globalisation. According to Hitt & et. al., (1999), technological revolution generated new information highway and makes information available almost immediately. Significant drifts in the context of technology in present century comprise growing rate of technological change and dissemination, introduction of information phase and increasing knowledge strength. Such developments have facilitated quick diffusion of knowledge and made information rich. As a result, these changes have condensed the product lifecycle, made patents less efficient and minimised the time required for developing and introducing new products to the market. Moreover, new technology is permitting organisations to customise products and services according to the customers’ requirements more rapidly. These situations call for organisations to develop radically enhanced methods for processing and integrating information and provide facilitators for additional technological development. Technological improvements place critical significance on organisational learning, which further facilitates them to maintain the desired degree of competitive advantages (Hitt & et. al., 1999). Apart from technological development, globalisation has also affected businesses. Presently, operations in the global market are no longer reserved only for large organisations. Technology has permitted various small organisations to become players in the international markets. In fact, globalisation has generated needs and desires for products and services, and therefore, has forced political leaders to agree on new regulations of conducting trade. Globalisation and related changes in trade regulations has further made it simpler for organisations to involve in international business undertaking variety of initiatives in terms of strategic alliances, joint ventures and merger & acquisitions among others. Globalisation also generated more stakeholders and contingencies for businesses. Thus, technological development and globalisation both have produced a obscuring of industry boundaries that represent huge reorganisation of business. Perhaps, owing to the same reason, it has become challenging for organisations to recognise its competitors accurately. The new competitive landscape resulting from technological revolution and growing globalisation has resulted in challenges like uncertainty, indistinctness and strategic gaps faced by organisations. It is worth mentioning in this context that the highly unpredictable environment generates almost continuous instability. In reality, the new competitive landscape in 21st century has become much closer to purely competitive markets than past times. In such environment, organisations have to create innovative products or high quality services with affordable rate in order to satisfy the increasingly well-versed customers with distinct requirements (Hitt & et. al., 1999). According to Heil & et. al., (2010), the extensive accessibility of the internet in 21st century has influenced several aspects of competition within the business dimensions, particularly in the field of marketing. With the markets and products maturing steadily, new competitive drivers have appeared since the traditional and modern eras of business performance. The free economy, where unbridled competition thrives, has generated dramatic advantages stimulating attractive environmentally friendly products, which enhanced the level of competition among organisations. In present days, market competition is under siege and public segment has gained astonishing increase in market share at the cost of private segment. In accordance with the study of Nguyen & et. al., (2009), 21st century landscape is characterised by uncertainty and dynamism, where many organisations are competing in complex and stimulating business settings. These settings are being renovated by factors such as globalisation, technological improvement, technological dispersion and application of knowledge. As such, the basis of organisational competitiveness has also changed from an emphasis on physical and tangible assets to knowledge based assets in order to obtain sustaining competitive advantage. Why Having a Goal Isnt Sufficient to achieve Competitive Advantage in the 21st Century In todays’ extremely competitive business environment, the goal of every organisation is to overthrow the competitors, to gain new customer base and to ensure sustainable profit. However, only having a goal is not sufficient to accomplish competitive advantage. There is need to understand how organisations can gain competitive advantage. The flow of various international activities has further propelled unprecedented advancement in technology, communication and transportation, which have led to considerable changes in the business settings. Moreover, advancement in technology suggests that changes in business setting also lead to changes in business practices for organisations. It is worth mentioning that the surge in the intensity of competition has accompanied with increase in the number of organisations who have understood that it is not sufficient for them to formulate goals only, but also the method to fulfil those determined goals. Hana (2013) stated that competitive advantage is related with intensive innovation. Quite simply, innovation is not about having an idea regarding product or services, which will bring considerable change in the world, but it is the way through which, such an idea can be brought into action. Innovation is all surrounding as 21st century’s domineering aspect. Actual innovation pervades every portion of the organisation. It drives diversity and exceptional services, it is regarded as being exceptional concerning product offerings and it is the key to gain competitive advantages. In order to innovate, organisational system necessitates a more versatile range of approaches for business than observed in the older times. Correspondingly, a concentration on those areas can drive innovative actions among employees. Innovation permits organisations to perform effectively in changing business environment. Modern organisations also require accepting common challenges of balancing the business pressures and simultaneously, planning in order to gain market success (Hana, 2013). In accordance with the study of Soliman (2013), in order to gain competitive advantages, it is vital for organisations to incorporate cultural aspects during the formulation of goals. Proper culture can herein generate innovativeness among individuals in an organisation. Culture is the core of organisational activities, which not only determines the goals, but also provides organisations with unique qualities. In other words, culture determines the behaviours of individuals within an organisation. Culture is vital as it defines about how things really work in an organisation, how products and services are really made, how employees are really remunerated, how customers can be engaged and how people can be treated every day (Soliman, 2013). In modern days, corporate goals are merely empowered by the culture to the conviction that culture is a strategy in itself. In other words, culture can assist in managing business risks by discouraging undesirable activities and thereafter, stimulating desirable activities for the accomplishment of goals and towards the successful achievement of sustainable competitive advantage. It helps to deliver superior business performances by overcoming the competitive barriers (LRN, 2010). The business environment of 21st century is characterised by rise of knowledge oriented and multicultural workforce, propagation of sophisticated information technology and increased customer demand. Furthermore, leaders play a vital part in preparing organisations for facing the challenges of the future. Business aspects such as corporate relationship have gone through several changes since 1960. Systematising and constructing business is also changing these days. Traditionally, majority of traditional businesses were based on command and control mechanism and was anchored in ownership structure, but nowadays, the structure of several businesses are being swapped by relationships such as strategic alliances, joint ventures and outsourcing among others. These relationships are subject to common understanding of organisational goals, strategies, teamwork and inducement. Apparently, many of the modern business relationships are temporary and unplanned in comparison with the permanence of old command and control based organisations (Finegold & Notabartolo, 2010). Thus, it is apparent that changes are occurring in the business environment and new trends are emerging. These aforementioned changes in business along with existing perception have proved to be a challenge in organising and structuring communication and other activities in an organisation. Present organisations therefore require increasing emphasis on flexibility and variation, demanding greater clarity in terms of goals, values and strategies. Such changes have forced organisations to change their viewpoints on past process of competitive advantage through formulation of goals and strategies, concentrating more on understanding what should be done in order to stay competitive in the future (Finegold & Notabartolo, 2010). Where Do Contemporary Organisations Often Lack when Targeting Competitive Advantages Contemporary organisations these days require dealing with dynamic and uncertain business environment. In order to achieve competitive advantages, contemporary organisations often lack strategic awareness about how to act in order to gain their desired industrial positioning. They require understanding how changes in the competitive environment are unfolding. They must actively search for opportunities in order to take advantages of their strategic capabilities and ways of perfection in every segment of business. Modern organisations should be capable of rapidly reacting to opportunities and hindrances of business. According to Papulova & Papulova (2006), strategic management is highly beneficial for organisations to gain competitive advantages. As a basic requirement, modern organisations not only require to understand what the business is about and what goals they are trying to accomplish or which way they are directed, but also how they can accomplish these goals. Every successful businessperson has the self-awareness and every successful organisation appears to have simplicity of vision and planning for achieving the planned goals. It is in this context that as per the common belief, organisational leaders who made long run plan usually enjoy better time in future. Papulova & Papulova (2006) also stated that the 21st century changes in business environment forced the leaders to develop a methodical way of evaluating the environment, assessing the strengths and weaknesses, recognising the opportunities and exploiting the opportunities to gain better competitive advantages. According to Njuguna (2009), an organisation is supposed to have a sustainable competitive advantage when it is applying a value creating approach. Due to this reason, organisations are required to concentrate on such methods, which are hard to replicate. Njuguna (2009) also emphasised on the role of learning in order to accomplish competitive advantages in the current business scenario. Organisational learning inspires employees to understand new skills and to try new procedures and work methods for accomplishing the strategic business goals. Hence, in today’s quickly changing and competitive business environment, constant learning is a competency for every organisation (Njuguna, 2009). Modern organisations often lack to strive for their unique and individual characteristics, which is vital for distinguishing them from the competitors for a long period. Competitive advantage can only arrive when organisations are able to create valuable products and services. Such products and services must be rare where competitors hardly have any access and are highly inimitable, where competitors are unable to reproduce easily. Obtaining and preserving competitive advantages is a purpose of resources and aptitudes brought by competition. The knowledge resource and abilities can therefore be asserted as the consequence of learning procedure, which implies improvement in reaction ability by broad understanding of the business environment. The learning procedure can assist employees to discover the problems of existing organisational system and challenging ironies. Thus, learning is critical for contemporary organisations due to acceleration of market and technological changes. Learning by better understanding also facilitates changes in behaviour, therefore leads to competitive advantages (Njuguna, 2009). The ‘Resource Based View’ of competitive advantage states that organisations must possess four conditions in order to sustain in the 21st century landscape. The first condition is heterogeneity, which signifies that organisational abilities are heterogeneous and one organisation might have superior resources in comparison with others. Thus, organisations, which bestow with such superior resources, are capable to generate products or services more economically than other competitors and gain better competitive advantages. The second condition of competitive advantage is preservation of heterogeneity. If the heterogeneity of organisation is temporary in nature, the competitive advantage will likewise, be fleet over time. Since contemporary organisations are primarily concerned with advantages over short-run, the condition of heterogeneity becomes relatively nondurable and unable to add value to the customers in the long run. There are two factors, which limit the competitive advantage of contemporary organisations for long run, which are lacking imitability and flawed substitutability. Imperfect mobility is the third conviction of competitive advantage. Organisational resources are herein regarded as immobile if they cannot be merchandised. Such resources are of low value outside the organisation and cannot be bid away willingly. These types of resources are bound to the organisations and are available to use over the long run. Hence, these resources are regarded as the source of sustained competitive advantage in today’s context. Finally, the ultimate condition of competitive advantage is limited competition. Before establishing a superior resource positioning, there should be limited competition for that position. Such superior position is the only source of gaining above normal profit. However, most of the contemporary organisations lack the anticipation or good fortune to acquire such position in the absence of competition (Peteraf, 1993). In the 21st century business environment, coupled with intense competition, gaining competitive advantage is like a dream unless it is tied with managing knowledge properly. It is worth mentioning that competitive advantage is brought about by developing and placing innovative business solutions that can reprocess appropriate knowledge and apply afresh-formed understanding. Merely, creation of knowledge through learning is insufficient for contemporary organisations; rather, such knowledge must be applied properly in order to gain sustainable competitive advantages. In accordance with the study of Hamza (2008), in contemporary organisation, there is a relationship between use of knowledge and development of competitive advantages. The basic problem, which is related with contemporary organisation with respect to the use of knowledge, is lack of incorporated and comprehensive structure to understand how to use the knowledge. However, competitive advantage today goes not to those organisations that possess the best knowledge about what they do, but to those who use the knowledge in best way. Unless applying knowledge in practical life is accomplished, every aspect of competitive advantage becomes in vain. More precisely, Gupta & McDaniel (2002) suggested that there is truly a ‘knowledge-doing gap’ in contemporary organisation. In accordance with ‘Knowledge-Based’ view, competitive advantage of organisation over market appears from superior capability in making and shifting knowledge about how to fulfil the objectives. It is a motivating force in the development and growth of organisations, because acquisition of knowledge about the question ‘how’ can improve organisational capability to sustain a position vis-à-vis their competitors owing to the fact that the capability to learn quickly than the competitors is a key competitive advantage in todays’ rapidly changing business environment. Critical Justification 21st century is known as an era, which is based on risk and unpredictability. Globalisation, new technologies and better transparency have united in order to overturn the business environment and provided many organisational leaders to a deep sense of apprehension. Since 1980s, the volatility in business margin has doubled. Furthermore, the gap between winners, i.e. organisations with high operating margin and losers (referring to organisations with low operating margin) has also increased considerably. Market leadership has also become quite unwarranted, as proportion of organisations dropping from top rankings in their respective industries has increased from 2% in 1960 to 14% in 2008. The probability that organisations, which have high market share and high profitability have also reduced from 34% in 1960 to about 7% in 2007 (Reeves & Deimler, 2011). The association between profitability and market share has also become non-existent in certain industrial segments. These uncertainties have further generated a tremendous challenge for organisations to develop their strategies. The reason is that traditional approaches of conducting business is actually based on the assumption that business environment is relatively steady and foreseeable, where in present days such assumptions have changed completely. The goal of every organisation is therefore centred to establish a continuing and obliquely static competitive advantage by creating ingenious market positioning or accumulating the right abilities and skills for making or delivering an attractive offering to the customers. Usually, contemporary organisations undertake periodic strategic appraisals to set courses and organisational structure on the basis of an evaluation of their respective industry. Such activities provide certain forecasts regarding what the organisations are doing in their respective industries. However, given the new level of uncertainty and development in the area of technology, several organisations are starting to ask regarding how they will evolve, rather than what they are doing (Reeves & Deimler, 2011). In the current 21st century, even though an organisation is on the right course, it would be meaningless if it lacks an understanding of how to act properly. Indecisiveness can at times result in failure in the market. Most of the time, organisations do not possess the luxury of favourable market conditions. Thus, it would be unwise for organisations to wait until they accumulate every fact regarding market or industry or competitors among others. In its place, it is effective to just gather the accessible facts, digest them accordingly and make decisions. In particular, knowledge can be considered as valuable only when organisations can act. As revealed from the study, from globalisation to technological improvement, many changes are occurring in the world wherein organisations are required to adjust themselves with them in order to gain sustainable competitive advantages. In this context, it can be stated that the entire idea of gaining competitive advantages commences with how, which signifies the approaches, outlooks and daily ways of conducting business activities. As stated above, there are various aspects of gaining success for modern organisations, which provide explanation about how to gain competitive advantages (Seidman, 2011). Undoubtedly, in the 21st century, information is the king. The new reality of the world is hyper connectedness, which puts information in hand of almost every individual. Thus far, organisations looked at certain external forces perform as they struggled to adjust with the changing business circumstances. However, there are other forces influencing the way people feel as individuals, organisations and any other group of which, they are a vital part. There are new needs and perceptions for organisations, which are raised by these changes in the environment. Such changes wield strong influences on future business achievements. In order to consider the quick changes to the layout of business, contemporary organisations must open the thoughts to how strong forces have produced new playing fields for gaining competitive advantages. At the end of 20th century, new market conditions left information within the reach of most individuals. Increased informational dispersion therefore enhanced the exposure of organisational abilities and made them vulnerable towards competition. The decade was characterised by ‘Just Do It’ signature as the world was accelerating quickly. With the apparently boundless potentials in that era, the spirit of information and knowledge started influencing the business. In order to deal with short-run demands in the progressively demanding capital market, managers of organisations sought for shortcuts and easy explanations. The conducts and tendencies of the industrial age, characterised by the demand for gaining effectiveness and speed, became priorities of organisations in those days. As a consequence of such habits, which inherited from industrial age, managers became increasingly concentrated on only making things done at any way as long as such ways fell within the boundary of legality. Most of the time, they ignored the methods employed in order to achieve any goal and such habits encouraged the importance of the question ‘how’, rather than ‘what’ (Seidman, 2011). Along the way to 21st century, the traditional worth of leadership has vanished. Consequently, in order to gain competitive advantages, the concept of ‘just do it’ was no longer sufficient. There is also growing requirement to demonstrate how to ‘do it, i.e. how to treat customers and how to accomplish the goals. The wind of public view has also moved and with respect to business, that influencing and change the bottom-line of the traditional competitive viewpoint. The change in business environment was inevitable, but its fragrance was overwhelmed by the rich flash of times. In the 21st century, the usual cycle of boom and bust started to uncover and the new realisms got shaken up, which necessitated organisations to develop new cultural dimensions in order to gain competitive advantages. Recommendations In order to ensure competitive advantages, today’s organisations must enhance the productivity of the professionals and change the organisational structure radically. There is need to recognise the intensified worth of people who develop new thoughts, to cooperate with peers in order to generate revenue and to create value through intangible assets such as brand name and strong business network. Organisations can therefore accomplish their goals by modifying vertical structures in order to let varied group of professionals on evidently defined tasks with clear responsibility. Consequently, it would assist in creating new and strong networks along with marketplaces that makes it simple for professionals to interact collaboratively and to find the knowledge they require in order to achieve competitive advantage (Beardsley & et. al., 2006). It is also recommended that organisations can establish new organisational structures by minimising the complexity in their regular interactions and enhance the quality of inner teamwork by applying unified structural design principles. Organisations can therefore streamline and simplify the management structure and organise teams in order to determine wealth generation prospects, while using a dynamic management procedure and deal with short run and long run adjustments. Organisations can also develop knowledge marketplace and formal networks in order to encourage the formation and alteration of intangible assets (Beardsley & et. al., 2006). Furthermore, organisations can create competitive advantage by improving the effectiveness of transformational functions wherein efforts to make such transformation necessitate changes in every facet of business, i.e. from producing strategies to managing talent and leveraging information technology. Each of these activities can fundamentally bring a set of consistent changes in organisations. It is the job of management to nurture connectivity, remove obstacles in businesses, enable learning, deliver new tools for assisting employees and learn within the setting that demand distributed decision making system (Beardsley & et. al., 2006). It is worth mentioning that innovation, one of the key aspects of competitive advantage, can be encouraged by developing the interaction within the organisational dimensions. Furthermore, in order to improve the effectiveness of interaction, organisations must also overturn the strategic decision making procedure. It is believed that better thinking, are followed when communication and interaction become multidirectional. However, only few organisations utilise this understanding into the development of strategy by changing traditional top-down procedure in order to hold mechanism and tactics that permit a collection of initiatives to appear from internal and external communications. Thus, in present days, it has become crucial for organisations to set thematic goals and organisational directions, as these aspects become crucial for providing attractive worth in organisations such as innovation (Beardsley & et. al., 2006). One of the key aspects in order to sustain competitive advantage in today’s 21st century is the formation of organisation’s information technology infrastructure. Technology plays a vital role in fostering communication and making information more effective and valuable. Moreover, technology is primarily related with developing the supply chain effectiveness. Sophisticated system can also be used in order to support activities such as product development and market analysis among others (Srivastava & et. al., 2013). It is also recommended that organisations must utilise the human capital effectively in order to establish the foundation for competitive advantages. It is therefore imperative for organisational leaders to truly understand the underlying employee motivational aspects and then establish a performance management infrastructure for extracting out the best from every employee. Organisational leaders should also concentrate on harnessing the abilities of employees, which can contribute to sustained competitive advantages. Correspondingly, in order to deal with the increased competition, organisations should use strategies that are more contemporary, to attract and retain valuable employees (Srivastava & et. al., 2013). Conclusion In today’s ever-changing world and increasingly competitive business environment, organisations can no longer abide by the status quo or business as was traditionally done. Dramatic changes in the business environment, such as globalisation, growth of information technology, international competition and shift in customers’ expectations have strained the irrelevancy of traditional methods of doing business. New demands are being imposed on the managers due to the unstable business environment. In order to prosper in current business environment, organisational leaders require reconsidering the traditional ways of conducting business. A reappraisal of strategies is also necessary for evaluating the organisational goals along with the organisational abilities. The aspects of competitive advantage in the 21st century have further changed considerably, as revealed from the study conducted above. Thus, in order to gain such advantages, organisations must rethink the fundamentals and reconnect the values that sustain the core competencies. Furthermore, organisations should also stimulate the kind of activities, improvements and cooperation that are required to gain competitive advantage. Such requirements have certainly contributed in the ultimate shift of thinking from ‘what’ to ‘how’. By using the ‘how’ framework, organisations can effectively evaluate the governance and leadership structure. Furthermore, the ‘how’ framework also helps to recognise the behaviours, which are effective and dysfunctional. Thus, it is important that organisations, in order to obtain competitive advantages must develop inspirational culture aligning strategies with its overall goals and abilities. References Beardsley, S. C. & et. al., 2006. Competitive Advantage from Better Interactions. The McKinsey Quarterly, No. 3, pp. 14-25. Finegold, D. & Notabartolo, A. 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Srivastava, M. & et. al., 2013. Building a Sustainable Competitive Advantage. Journal of Technology Management and Innovation, Vol. 8, Issue. 2, pp. 47-60. Read More