Competitive Advantage in the CompanyNuria Fuente is a Professor in the area of Business Management and Logistics at Bureau Veritas University Center .
In the face of the current crisis, all companies are trying to survive the situation they are going through. In order to continue competing in the market, to be able to survive and enter the current market, it is necessary to look for the competitive advantages that it has and to enhance them. Although it is sometimes difficult, in certain markets, to establish what our competitive advantages are, the truth is that if these are not visible to the naked eye, it will be necessary to create them.
A competitive advantage sometimes cannot exist in itself, so the organization must put great effort into discovering, enhancing and offering it to the market.
What is a competitive advantage?
Competitive advantage can be said to be what a linkedin data company needs in order to ensure long-term profits. It is a characteristic that differentiates a product, service or company from its competitors. For this characteristic to be called an “advantage”, it has to be unique and different. Therefore, these advantages that a company has over others in the same sector make it stand out from the rest and have a better position in the market.
These competitive advantages can occur in different aspects of the company. In some cases, there may be a competitive advantage in the product, in the service offered to the customer, in costs, in technology, in logistics, etc. When we talk about a competitive advantage, it is not only a tangible characteristic in a product or perceptible in a service; it can also be developed with a product that is equal or similar to that of the competition, but presented in a different way, highlighting, for example, its distribution channels or even its price.
Some examples of competitive advantages that are applicable to certain products or services by a company are, for example, having a patent, brand value, having exclusive distribution channels, having an R&D department, having high-quality production processes. A clear example would be, if I offer a different and innovative product and it manages to be successful in the current market, I can have a competitive advantage over other products in terms of its design.
Companies take a series of actions to gain a defensible position in a given industrial sector and obtain a performance above the average of their industry. Such performance can only be obtained if the company achieves a sustainable competitive advantage over time, which will allow it to differentiate itself from the competition and obtain a superior relative position to compete.