Ghadii Hanna

ID: 201102872

“Competitive Strategy”
- Introduction:
Companies nowadays, are becoming more and more aware about the business tricks and
hacks that each and every one of them are implementing in the market to try and dominate the
largest market share. Saying it makes it look easy, but in reality, action is harder than words.
Their corporate goal, is to try and be futuristic by putting in place what we call a “Competitive
Strategy” or in other words by acquiring competitive advantages and be a step ahead of their
competition.

- What is Competitive Strategy?

 It’s when a company tries to develop competitive advantages and earnings above the
average return, through 3 main components:
I. “Resources”  which can categorized into 2 types:
 Tangible ( such as raw materials, machinery, equipment…etc.)
 Intangible ( such as technology, finance, firm reputation, brand equity…etc.)  they
tend to be inimitable and hard for competitors to copy)
II. “Capabilities”  it’s when the company transform its resources into competitive
products (for example when clothing companies transform linen material into ready to
sold product – such as T-shirts, pants…etc.)  they represent the core competencies of
the company.
 III. “Core Competences”  creates sustainable competitive advantage *such as leadership
skills, Organizational skills, Communication…etc.)

- Influences of Competitive Strategy

 As we know not all competitors are the same. We can find major inequalities between
them, which means that the company has to understand and manipulate those
differences, even when it’s in the same business, sometimes firms needs to take
different actions to deal with it.

As for the environments surrounding the company itself, many diverse factors affect the
company internally and externally; in other words, and I quote “Strategy is the outcome of
several different conflicting force”.

 Internal Factors – those are factors in the core of the company

a) Personal values of the key implementers – such as owners and managers inside the
administration which have their own personal values and ambitions and clearly has a
direct impact on the company’s mindset in overall.
b) Strengths and Weaknesses – The firm’s own characteristic- Positive and Negative – as
the companies tries to match their resources to the market

 External Factors – those are the factors that may be created in the process.
a) Broader societal expectations - the expectations of your society about the
organizations, which will react to the interactions and the social mores of the company
b) Opportunities and Threats – take advantage of opportunities and avoid threats as much
as you can.

By analyzing the inside and the outside environment of the company and the way these firms
works – they all point to the same direction which is “Product market selection”:

 Existence of valuable market segments

 Creation of strategic assets
 Sustainable positioning advantage

- What do we have to do to succeed?

- Is there a Market?
- Can we survive the competition?

Well, here are some key success factors:

1. Supply a product or a service with a higher value than the competition is offering, with
same range price.
2. Know what your customers want and the most important part why did they choose this
product.
3. Know how to get competitive advantage over your competitors by studying and
learning, at first the rival’s identity, vison and goal and the forces you have to use in
order to endure the competition.