SMG SM 131 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Competitive Advantage, Cost Leadership, Continual Improvement Process

• School: Boston University
• Department: School of Management
• Course: SMG SM 131
• Professor: Matthew Reis

Document Summary

Companies are unable to translate operational improvements/management tools into sustainable profitability. Strategic positioning -performing different activities from rivals or performing similar activities in different ways. Any practice that allows a company to better utilize its inputs (i. e. reduce defects) Rapid infusion of best practices make it harder to companies to stay ahead of rivals. Oe competition produces improvement in oe, but leads to relative improvement for no one. Profits are captured by customers and suppliers, not retained in superior profitability. The more benchmarking companies do, the more they look alike. The more that rivals outsource activities to third parties, often the same ones, the more generic those activities become. Strategic positions can be based on customers" needs, customers" accessibility, or the variety of a company"s products or services. Variety-based positioning- based on the choice of product or service varieties rather than customer segments.