Competitive Environment - Case Study Example

Most companies have faced domestic competition and done well in the limited competitive milieu that they have been operating in. But now all companies will face competition from companies all over the world. Governments will be unwilling to protect domestic companies because they have realized that they will be doing a great disservice to their economies and people by limiting competition in their countries. Most governments are going overboard in making their countries attractive destinations for foreign capital, technologies and companies.

The game is clear. Only the best companies will survive (Adler et al, 1993). The nationalities of companies will not matter and country markets will become intensely competitive. There will be another type of competition which is more difficult to contend with because it comes from unexpected quarters. New technologies are pouring out of laboratories and development centers. These new technologies do not respect the boundaries of existing businesses. They solve customers' existing and even unarticulated needs in fresh ways.

Customers lap up the products and services made with these technologies because they are decidedly better than the products and services they are using. . In that sense video-conferencing is a direct threat to air travel and hotel industries. Companies need to keep a track of development of technologies in varied areas, because there is no way to find out which one of them is going to hit them.To explain Toyota's competitive advantages, much focus has been on Toyota's Just-in-Time tools such as kanban-card paced pull systems, frequent, small batch production and delivery, and reduced inventories.

For instance, Hopp and Spearman (2000) have contrasted ConWIP and kanban control of production flows. Deleersnyder et al (1989) and Lee (1989) have compared the relative efficacy of push and pull approaches for production.Customers' needs are changing because their economic status and their views about themselves and the world are changing. Customers are reinventing themselves more frequently these days and hence their whole being and their rationale of existence is changing (Cusumano, 1989).

This reflects in the products and services they buy and their motivations in buying those products and services also change. They want their needs to be served differently, and in most cases by different providers. A family used to go on a holiday once in a while for a change. It essentially used to be a meaningless outing. But now a family will go on a holiday with the avowed purpose of recuperating and energizing. Certain activities have to be part of this holiday. There has to be yoga sessions, mountain climbing, bonfires, etc.

The holiday planner that served the family will have to reinvent his business or there will be another provider waiting to grab his client. Companies has to keep track of its customers'