Sample Essay On Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Introduction

A competitive advantage differentiates the organization from the competition in its customers’ minds. For this reason, the organization ought to have an understandable competitive advantage. In the contemporary global environment, a sustainable competitive advantage is crucial for an organization to succeed. A sustainable competitive advantage takes place when a company develops or acquires an attribute that makes it do better than its competitors. Organizations need to create comprehensible goals, strategies, and operations to maintain their competitive advantages over time. It is worth noting that there is a need for the organizations to align employees’ values and corporate culture to their goals.
A number of circumstances determine the strategies that organizations choose to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. A firm selects a low-cost strategy to achieve sustainable competitive advantage when there are economies of scale and when its operations are efficient. Efficient operations, as well as economies of scale, help a firm keep its rivals out through being low-cost provider. In fact, a low-cost strategy is a significant barrier to entry. An example of a company that uses a low-cost strategy to achieve sustainable competitive advantage is Wal-Mart. The company has built its brand loyalty through low pricing.
On the other hand, a firm chooses a differentiation strategy to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage when it has a strong brand that communicates how it delivers benefits to the consumers much better than its rivals. In addition, a firm that has outstanding customer service and produces goods of high-quality through innovation chooses a differentiation strategy to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. It has become imperative for the companies to recognize their customers’ wants and needs (Alharthi, 2012). For this reason, organizations offer outstanding customer service after understanding the wants and needs of their clients. Apple is one Company that uses a differentiation strategy due to its IPod innovation. The other good example of the organization that chooses a differentiation strategy is Nordstrom, Inc. due to its outstanding customer service.

References

Alharthi, S. Z. (2012). Towards A Sustainable Competitive Advantage. International Journal of Business Research and Development (IJBRD), 1(1).