Dr.

Ping He

MGT 4479

Hieu Nguyen – ID: 1544256

March 22, 2021

Competitive advantage is a common phrase in any competition or competitive environment. The

term is often used in sports festivals, a fight, a contest, a negotiation, or even an implicit battle

over various corporations' sales. This is one of the essential factors in deciding which side has

the upper hand. That means the more competitive advantage, the more overwhelming the

opponent, the greater the ability of that side to win.

However, in a few cases, competitive advantage was not the last factor in the rebound of an

underdog. When participating in a competition, each faction cannot join with empty hands.

Competitive advantage is like a weapon in which the more decisive advantage is similar to a

more advanced weapon. Indeed, in a “confrontation,” it is impossible only to need each

advantage to compete, but it is an important thing that is indispensable. For example, party A has

no competitive advantage, but Party B has many advantages. In particular, combat power and

experience are also a part of the strength, so Party A does not have any competition factors. The

only thing that can be separated from advantage is the element of luck, which is inherently tricky

and unlucky. It seems that failure is already in the fate of party A.

The reality is that competitive advantage and strengths are two different things. Because

“strength” is the word for what we are the best at, and “competitive advantage” is the term to

point out something we do better than our competitors. Therefore, we need a process to find our

competitive advantage, not just confidence in what is available.

Competitive advantage occurs only when we know who our competitors are, our strengths, and

our weaknesses. This weakness will be reflected in two aspects: nature, the current situation. A

person must grasp the opponent's identity and the opponent's starting point in terms of nature. As

for the current situation, surely we must use more research methodology and in-depth analysis. It

may be an opponent's weakness; sometimes it is revealed, sometimes it is their secret, forcing us

to have a strategy to find and discover it. Sometimes, a corporation even has to predict the

opponent's weakness based on their manifestations and current affairs. When analyzing an

opponent's weaknesses, one needs to make the most objective assessment. Stand on the client-

side, or reviewer, for comments. This should be emphasized because, from our perspective, it is

clear that we will better judge subjectively. Not only that, each person's opinion is different, and

the person who makes the final decision is not necessarily us.

Once we have found the weaknesses, then we must move on to the self-assessment step. As well

as the saying “A person who sees through life and death will meet most success.” To assess one's

abilities, a person must answer the following questions: Is the opponent's weaknesses their

weakness? Can they overwhelm their opponent with the opponent's weakness? Answering these

two questions means that we will be able to answer the question, “Is my power enough to

compete with the opponent?”.

If the opponent's weakness is our strength, then it is a competitive advantage. But if the

opponent's weakness is also our weakness, we must continue making the subsequent

comparisons to ensure that this competition is balanced. Competitive advantage is only truly

determined when we visually evaluate competitors and ourselves. Besides, assessing our abilities

also helps us find a backup strategy to overcome the opponent's gap in a particular factor.
And the final step is to rely on the results of the self-analysis to identify the superiority points.

Superiority points give a person confidence in the competition against the opponent and can also

be their trump card. Therefore, we must continue to find many outstanding advantages because

all of these are practical competitive advantages of one side. The most apparent dominant

advantage is a strength that the opponent does not possess or is weaker, or can also be the result

of the two analysis steps above. Besides, superiority is a competitive advantage based on sudden

circumstances in some cases. For example, two outdoor eateries are of the same food quality, but

a competitive advantage suddenly appears when it rains, and there is only one covered restaurant.

In each competition, we must find and explore different competitive advantages. Competitive

advantage can also change over time with long-term confrontations. We must keep in mind that

each individual or organization never has only one advantage.

In business, there are quite a few factors that can turn into one's competitive advantage.

However, similar to general competitive advantage, a company must also explore competitive

business advantage according to the above process, even invested and studied in depth in smaller

steps. A false analysis of competitive advantage can affect revenue and the survival of a

business.

The first is cost leadership. A business must find a way to create a service or product that is

cheaper than its opponent. The company will gain a competitive advantage if they sell the same

effect, but the price is no higher than their competitor. Hence, the result will significantly benefit

the customers. Lowering the price also leads to higher profits as firms are still making a decent

profit based on the increased revenue. If businesses have difficulty creating profits, they should

consider finding a facility where the cost of transportation, labor, and materials is cheaper. This
will lower the cost of production cost in comparison to other competitors. Companies can add

value to customers by bypassing cost benefits to them.

Next is a distinct advantage. A distinct advantage is obtained when a business's product or

service differs from its opponents. Michael Porter's book suggests making those goods or

services unique to stand out from the competition. Companies will need to research deeply,

gathering information from many sources to generates ideas. Improvements to services or goods

can also include delivering outstanding quality to customers. The customers are willing to pay

more to gain a better experience.

Finally, there is the advantage of concentration. The ideal focus strategy tries to get businesses to

focus on particular markets rather than every market. This strategy is often used for small

companies because they may not have enough resources or the right capabilities to target more

markets. Businesses that use this approach often focus on improving their customers' lives,

focusing on the essential needs of their customers. In this approach, some companies may even

allow customers to provide input to their service or product. Segmentation strategy is the same as

this strategy, including geographic segmentation, demographics, behavior, and physics. By

narrowing the market down to smaller segments, businesses can respond to customer needs.

Once businesses have decided on which group they will target, Porter argues, it is essential to

determine whether they will adopt a cost-leading approach or differentiation. A focused strategy

won't make a business successful. It is unnecessary to use all three methods as there is a high

chance that companies will not achieve their plan instead of gaining success. The result can be

called "stuck in the middle," and the business will not have a competitive advantage.
There are many tips to creating a competitive advantage in business: Reduce costs; Focus on

services; Focus on product quality; Form an alliance with another company. However, before

making a decision, the conclusion is still to analyze whether the choice is worth it or not.
 References

Competitive advantage. (2003, June 8). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved March 22,

2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=242418