The Top 10 categories in which an enterprise can create competitive advantage!

Originally Submitted on 10/8/97.

When we consider what managers and leaders of enterprise ought to think about, there are a number of important issues. One of the most important is establishing and maintaining competitive advantage or market leverage. The ability to compete and collaborate within the market ecosystem of an enterprise is brought about by core competency, capability and market success. The following is a listing of areas where market leadership can lead to sustainable competitive advantage!

1. REAL-TIME!

In a book by the same name written by Regis McKenna, the entire subject of the book is about competition and enterprise in "real time." Without question, the ability to adapt and collaborate in real-time will lead to competitive advantage in the future. In a world of dissatisfied customers the only success will be measured "right now" in real-time! The book is a fascinating read and I recommend it highly. It gives "specific examples" of how to compete and adapt in real time.

2. Cycle Time

Can you speed up the time it takes for an iteration or process to adapt and respond to changes? Can you decrease the time from concept to market? Can your "process throughput" be increased without increasing inputs, etc. etc. etc.

3. Adaptability

Call it change, call it evolution, call it whatever you like, but you better get real good at it! The ability to adapt and respond immediately will become a competitive advantage as organizations develop skills and capabilities which allow them to increase flexibility and response-ableness.

4. Customer Itimacy!

This one comes from the Discipline of Market Leaders, a book that is a great piece of research on companies who do it right. Customer knowledge and the ability to create a "closeness" with customer--that as Thomas Leonard says--becomes interdevelopmental. Both the customer and the company evolve together to higher levels of interaction and satisfaction.

5. Attractive Quality Creation

This comes directly from Dr. Noriako Kano, a management scientist from Japan. Dr. Kano has worked with companies for over twenty years in creating attractive quality and has designed a system which illicits increased levels of enterprise advantage as a result. A forthcoming top ten on "attractive quality creation" will provide the details--watch for it!

6. Ease of Doing Business

From T. Scott Gross's book on Positively Outrageous Service, the ease and transparency with which customers can carry out transactions when they do business with us fosters attraction at a ever increasing level. People don't want to have to work to do business with you. If they do, they'll switch to someone else where their efficiency is greater. MAKE IT EASY FOR CUSTOMERS TO DO BUSINESS WITH YOU and you create an attractive enterprise.

7. Innovation

Michael Porter says differentiation. Fred Wiersema says product leadership. In either case, innovation is a key capability in establishing attractiveness and market advantage. The economic theory of increasing returns applies here. A company can become attractive through innovation and design. The more one has, the more one gets--increasing returns. The theory of diminishing returns does not apply to all companies in the age of connectivity!

8. PRICE!

Walmart proves this one everyday. Their systems are so streamlined and so innovative that they can compete on price with anyone. The core capability? Cost leadership as stated by Michael Porter in his work on strategy. Competing on price is a real tough place to compete and if you decide to embark on this capability, you had better be good at operational excellence--as referenced in the Discipline of Market Leaders--one of the three systems of establishing competitive advantage.

9. Human Capital

Talk to Richard Branson at Virgin and he will tell you that one of the key reasons that Virgin has been competitive in almost every industry it has entered is--people! Great people

10. Connectivity

This has become my favorite. The information age has come and gone and we now are right at the beginning of the "AGE OF CONNECTIVITY." Information and knowledge have become a commodity in this age and the only competitive advantage comes from their use. Virtual "everything" means that you need to be connected to the right people, markets and "webs of influence." Everything is about becoming connected. Enterprise does not function in a vaccum, it takes two.... Capability will arise from the enterprise's ability to organize and create connections. These connections will both create and cause the organization to become more adapt-able, more attract-able and certainly more profit-able. And then perhaps all this competitive advantage can help people have lives!

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