Competitive Advantages of a Company - Essay Example

?ORGANISATIONS SUCCEED WHEN THEY DEVELOP COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES College Companies become successful from effort and planning than from accident or luck. With major developments in the industry that are notable in every sector, efforts are not just made to be good but to be better than most if not the best. It is important to consider the overall performance of an organization to that of other firms on the same platform of production as that organization when making such plans. This is because competition happens between firms in the same industry and is characterized mostly by the products created. Competitive advantage is gained when companies can provide a better quality of products than other players in the same industry. Companies should consider strategies to deal with the markets that involve new routine and tact. Strategies like setting trend don’t are not likely to kick off well if there are other companies in the market already while imitating the already existing trends may not work especially if other organizations have turned to differentiating their own products. Depending on the specific products an organization is bringing into the market, it is important to realize other companies with the same product and differentiate them. Differentiating products by branding and advertising is a major step in peering through competition (Coker, 2000). It is also important to look into the different ways of expanding on the same product a firm is creating to be at a level ahead of the competition; for example when an aviation company extends to creating a school of aviation to offer courses and training that is especially for their firm. It is also useful to consider taking your consumers’ needs into account and seeking their expectations, for example how they like to have their coffee, with creamer or not. This will enhance on further differentiation of products according to customers’ needs and aids with winning their loyalty. Organizations should not be afraid of being exposed to their competitors. For healthy competition, it is good for companies from one time to another to have their competitors analyzed in public. You assess your competitors in public by hosting fairs that involve them. This is also well aided by interactions between same product companies. Organizations should also take advantage of public documents like analysts reports for public companies and into market analysis. When other rival companies experience certain challenges, they become opportunities for these companies. When those companies makes successes they yet open an opportunity to think of better unexploited chances that may extend from those of their counterparts. In strategizing, it is important to come up with a plan that works around your competitor’s weaknesses as well as their strengths. One should identify other companies’ weaknesses to make adjustments to them so they can be a step ahead and give their customers a reason to prefer their products. Knowing your counterparts strengths on the other hand, helps you realize how further than them you can get ahead when you use those strengths and upgrade them where you can. They should work around what the other firm is selling, what their resources are and how easy they obtain those resources. In situations where the resource availability is not favorable to the competitors for example raw material location favors your own company. This would be an opportunity to trade with your competitor and gain a little control over them. In other situations where companies have sole control of resources that are either rare or are delicate to handle or are too expensive to manage for example while dealing with precious stones like gold and diamond (Adcock, 2000). It is also important to consider the population of the market, how many people are being targeted for a particular product. If possible a large population of consumers only improve on the quantity of units sold and helps the companies establish a base of consumer loyalty. This base allows for firms to maintain a certain market to itself by popularity and makes it hard for other players to find their way easily into the market. It is also tactful to enhance barriers that make it hard for other players to join the market by means like creating cartels with the few already existing companies. Creating barriers for other companies helps the major player maintain their market for a while. Specializing in certain products when laying a strategy is essential since specialization provides for more high quality goods that create an advantage for firms in the industries. When setting up organizations you also consider the cultures of the target population for example to manage a string of Chinese restaurants well one needs to employ a population that knows how to make Chinese food (Hoskisson, 2004). Completion advantage is also easy to gain for innovative entrepreneurs who develop unique products or even completely new products. Since their products are the only ones they completely lack competition or competition is little when other firms are established. Such competition is also encouraged by firms that have certain knowhow on producing their goods and are the only ones with such knowledge (Porter, 2010). Companies are also at an advantage above others in their fields if they employ technology that is advance and keep up with trend. Technology mostly provides more quality products than those whose products do not involve any little or a technology that is not regularly upgraded. It is also important to employ predictive measures when making all the decisions about competitive advantage. Having an upper hand his normally accompanied by effects which are mostly advantages. While yet the process could also be entirely a liability to the companies in the short run and if not well managed, in the long run as well. Coping with a competitive environment, becoming competitive is yet the beginning of implementing a strategy, the entire process requires that an organization be able to keep up with itself and others in the industry. It will demand an everyday review for purposes of monitoring. These reviews should involve actual data of sales and profits and rankings of the companies. It could involve the actual market’s opinions about products. Being on the better side of the competition puts an organization on watch by the entire industry and other organizations watch closely for their opportunities to have the chance to be on top. While the company may be admired there are possibilities that its products will be imitated and counterfeited. Even when counterfeits products are fake, they are mostly produced in such ways that appears so similar the customers can barely tell them apart. Counterfeiting of brands leads to losses since the company now shares their market directly with their competitors reducing on their current profits. Counterfeiting also leads to production of low quality products that could be harmful to the consumers of that brand of goods. Counterfeiting is countered by assuring customers of the goods labels and certifications that make them real, this leads to an extra cost of production that still cuts on the profits (Porter, 2008). Employing technology on the other hand is useful but can be challenging if the technology being employed is too much. In the short run, the costs of technology are expensive. Technology is also an ever changing phenomenon and one company could outdo the other any other time. Adopting to the culture of other people could be tricky as well where the population of such people is low and may reduce. Other risks include getting involved in a monopoly where the resources are too expensive or are rare like diamonds and gold. These organizations would require a lot of security to manage and the initial capital could be very high. Possessing knowledge of methods of certain products as the only firm may also pose a challenge to maintain such discretion, the death of certain people with that knowledge could also lead to the extinction of such a product and leave the consumers on the edge. While the aim of competitor advantage may be to improve on the quality of goods provided by firms, it also enhances the quality of life lived by both the consumers of those goods and the producers. Competition keeps the economy growing and provides a healthy environment for living. All the same, competition advantage has also lead to an increase in the rate of corruption and deception in many industries rising. This is because some firms lack means but would not want to leave the market or make losses. Some of the corruption issues involve deception in advertising which includes exaggerated information about contents of certain products that are actually not present in those products. There has also been use of low quality ingredients in production than those speculated in standards of production of goods by bureaus. Some of these products especially in the cosmetic industry have left lasting effects on consumers. All in all, competition and competition advantage is more useful than a disadvantage. It has improved on quality of goods produced and encouraged good management of systems in firms as well as skill and discovery of new ways of producing and new products by the day. References Adcock, D. (2000). Marketing strategies for competitive advantage. Chichester [England: Wiley. Coker, D. M. (2000). High performance sales organizations: Achieving competitive advantage in the global marketplace. New York, N.Y: McGraw-Hill. Hoskisson, R. E., Hitt, M. A., & Ireland, R. D. (2004). Competing for advantage. Mason, Ohio: South-Western/Thomson Learning. Porter, M. E. (2008). Competitive advantage: Creating and sustaining superior performance : with a new introduction. New York: Free Press. Porter, M. E. (2010). The competitive advantage of nations. New York: Free Press. Read More