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Fast Company

Own Your Competitive Advantage

– this is a key to strategic flexibility and speed

   Fast To Market Innovation Innoball VadiK Beta Testing Improvisation-driven RPM Lean Production Empowered Cross-functional Team Guiding Principles Guiding Structure Innovation System Simulation Games Synergistic Team Inspire Your Team Kore 10 Innovative Thinking Tools Organization and People Fast to Market: People, Enablers, Boosters, Vadim Kotelnikov

 
   

"Many companies, acting solely in the interest of short-term expense reduction, have tossed the baby out with the bathwater and ended up outsourcing the only thing(s) that allowed them to get to market fast or first."

~ Jason Jennings and Laurence Haughton, the author of
It's not the big that eat the small... it's the fast that eat the slow

 

  

 
   

Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA) is an advantage that allows uninterrupted maintenance and improvement of your enterprise's competitive position in the market. It is an advantage that enables your business to survive against its competition over a long period of time.

→ Sources of Sustainable Competitive Advantage

 

  

 

 
   

The Importance of Owning Your Competitive Advantage

You will never lead in innovation or be faster to market than your competition if you depend on other for your core technology.

While, according to the new standard operating procedures (SOP) and 80/20 Principle it is advisable to get rid of and outsource everything that isn't vital to your core business, make sure that, while doing so, you don't "toss the baby out with the bathwater". Every business can and should own one or several competitive advantages – the difficulty is figuring out what they are.

Owning your competitive advantage will allow you to build it continuously, be more flexible strategically, and eliminate speed breakers.

Owning Your Competitive Advantage Will Allow You:

▪ To reinvent your business and constantly improve what you do

▪ To harvest creative resources of your evangelists – your staff who share your passion and objectives

▪ To eliminate outsourcing-related speed breakers and the communication gap between you and your sub-contractor

▪ To build your competitive advantage continuously and implement new ideas immediately

▪ To be flexible in choosing new directions for further development and play your own game

 

  

 

 
   

Define Your Core Competencies

Three Main Characteristics:

① They should make a disproportional contribution to stakeholder value

② They should open doors to other opportunities

③ They should represent such a unique blend of tacit and explicit knowledge that it cannot be copied by others

→ Classic and Advanced Sources of SCA