Like this article? PLEASE +1 it! Evan Signature
Evan Carmichael Top Header about About Home Profiles articles Tools forums inspirational quotes About facebook Twitter YouTube Blog

competitive advantages Tagged Articles



Do you Suffer from Sand Castle Management? Take this Litmus test.
With the intellectual economy well upon us, how many corporations do you think still have their heads buried in the proverbial sand castle? Not mine, you say? Don't forget - - competitive advantages of old are no longer the competitive advantages of today. Technology is more easily and quickly duplicated, and by offshore competitors who do it for less. In days gone by (old industrial economy), a company's greatest assets were their physical and natural resources. Today (new intellectual economy), the biggest competitive advantage is a company's human capital. It's no longer the widget, brand image, or some secret formula. No, what makes one company better than another today is the human capital behind these things. In a recent Harris Study, it was noted that nearly 73% of a company's bottom line is tied to its people asset.
8 steps to organizational efficiency
Success in business depends on the effective use and leveraging of available resources such as people, time, money and facilities. Those businesses that are able to do this seem to consistently win over those that cannot. After all, when you are taking 1 step back for every 2 steps forward, your progress will always be limited. This article outlines 8 steps every business should take to ensure operational efficiency. If you do these 8 things, you will be well on your way to competitive advantages and sustainable, profitable growth.
Guerrilla Competitive Advantages
Everybody offers benefits in their marketing, but guerrillas stress those benefits that only they offer. That's where to hang your marketing hat.

How Long Should It Take To Complete A Strategic Plan?
Given the opportunity to better leverage the art and science of strategic planning, organizational leadership should strive to better understand strategic planning and unlock the competitive advantages it can bring them. This article examines the process of strategic planning In the corporate world and explores the required effort the process takes to accomplish the organization’s go-forward plan for the future and accompanying desired outcomes.

Differentiation-Based Leadership: Three questions that every leader must ask
The more competition you face, the greater the need to highlight the differentiation -- the unique advantage of your product or service -- in order to succeed in the marketplace. Differentiation-based leadership places the onus of grasping, defining and communicating that differentiation on the shoulders of the leader, and extends the concept to encompass every area of business -- including the leader him or herself. Using differentiation as the central principle of strategic competitive advantage, these are the three questions that every leader must ask.
Creative Marketing Ideas for a Down Economy
Let's face it, 2009 is going to be lousy. But complaining about isn't going to help anyone. It's time to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get creative. Here are some marketing ideas to get you started.

Who do you report to?
If you are a business owner, who holds you accountable? This is a major issue most small business owners never think about. Larger businesses have Boards of Directors who are legally responsible for oversight. Even many smaller business have them as well, and others prefer to use a Board of Advisors. Regardless of how you create accountability, it is a proven fact that you will do a better job as a leader within your organization if you have an external individual or body of people you are accountable to. This article provides insights into how you can create and utilize some form of Board governance for your business.
Decisions based on emotion = BAD for business
In recent years, there has been a rise in discussion and research around what makes a good leader good. From those discussions, a new field of study and measurement has arisen,. It is called Emotional intelligence, or EQ. (Don't ask me why it isn't EI, but it's not.) In simple terms, EQ is the ability to know and control your emotions, and the ability to recognize and empathize with the emotions of others. For the expertrs in this field, please, don't get your feathers ruffled. Defining EQ is not the point. The point is, emotion does NOT belong in business, and often leads to really bad decisions. Emotion seems to play the biggest role in family owned business where family members are either co-owners or employees. This article talks about how to handle these situations, whether you are on the verge of wading into one, or already there.
SWOT Analysis Tips
Some tips & recommendations on how to conduct a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & threats) analysis.
Diagnosing a Troubled Company Part I
Companies get into troubled for a variety of reasons. Just like doctors do check-ups to determine what is wrong with their patient, business owners, executives, and their advisors should examine their business to determine what is ailing it. This article starts to explore how to diagnose a company.
Publish a Book and Leave Your Competition Behind
By writing a book, you fit all the pieces of your expertise neatly into place. Your insights and lessons learned combine to fill your book’s pages resulting in an alluring record of your current value proposition. While much of this can also be said about writing articles, a book ups the ante, strutting your stuff thoroughly, glamorously and uniquely.
Before you start a web site re-design...
When a company decides to re-design their web site, the effort commonly begins with the sourcing of the right web design company. The typical scenario involves someone who's assigned to the task contacting a slew of web design and development companies from the first page of their Google search and asking for a quote. If this is what you're currently doing or about to do you're heading in the wrong direction.
A Seven Step Marketing Plan
Here are seven easy questions for a business owner to answer which will result in a 2012 marketing plan. Every entrepreneur needs one!
COACHING SKILLS
Coaching is a valuable concept and skill that can be the key to distancing yourself from your competitors. Learn what coaching is and what it can mean to an organization. Also become introduced to practical, uncomplicated solutions that leaders can apply immediately.
How to Build Successful Strategic Alliances
First of all, what is a strategic alliance? A strategic alliance is a partnership, a collaborative agreement and/or a relationship between two or more companies or organizations formed to pursue a set of agreed upon goals while remaining independent companies or organizations. Strategic alliances exist in a variety of shapes and sizes and include a wide range of scopes of cooperation levels. Strategic alliances usually are most effective when the entities involved have complementary strengths. In another article I wrote entitled “Strategic Alliances And Their Powerful Benefits,” I listed twelve (12) clear and powerful benefits of strategic alliances. Now, in this article I suggest how to build successful strategic alliances. Here are the ten (10) suggested actions to take to build successful strategic alliances.

Other competitive advantages Related Articles

Your Ultimate Competitive Advantage
To ensure your success in business you must have a competitive advantage. One of the best competitive advantages you can ever have is to offer a strong guarantee. A guarantee is a powerful marketing tool that will help you spread quality throughout your business and enable you to outdistance your competitors.

Sell Benefits, Not Advantages
Sellers are often too enamored with the advantages they have over their competition, but the customer is less impressed. They want to know “What are you going to do for me?” and even more important, “What will that do for my bottom line?” Here is a test to see if you are selling advantages, products or benefits.
Examples Of Strong Corporate Cultures
Corporate culture has become increasingly important to firms in the past 20 years. Despite its intangible nature, its role is meaningful, affecting employees and organizational operations. And while culture is not the only factor guaranteeing success, positive cultures offer significant competitive advantages over rivals.
How to Write Results-Oriented Web Pages, Sales letters, Ads, and Flyers
One of the cornerstones of any effective marketing strategy is identifying and clearly communicating your Unique Selling Proposition or distinctive selling advantages. Make it clear why you’re better and offer more than the competition. Emphasize your competitive strengths as a business, an individual, or as the provider of high quality services or products.

The ADVANTAGE Of Object Oriented Software
We've probably heard of object-oriented software and the advantages it provides over other methods of software development. However unless we've done some computer programming we're probably none the wiser about its advantages or even what it is. And if we've done some programming we may still wonder whether object-orientation provides any advantages at all or simply makes things more complex.
Do you Suffer from Sand Castle Management? Take this Litmus test.
With the intellectual economy well upon us, how many corporations do you think still have their heads buried in the proverbial sand castle? Not mine, you say? Don't forget - - competitive advantages of old are no longer the competitive advantages of today. Technology is more easily and quickly duplicated, and by offshore competitors who do it for less. In days gone by (old industrial economy), a company's greatest assets were their physical and natural resources. Today (new intellectual economy), the biggest competitive advantage is a company's human capital. It's no longer the widget, brand image, or some secret formula. No, what makes one company better than another today is the human capital behind these things. In a recent Harris Study, it was noted that nearly 73% of a company's bottom line is tied to its people asset.
Competitive Advantage vs. Your Business Model
Competitive advantage is not the same as a business model. Harvard Professor Michael Porter proposed the theory of competitive advantage in 1990. His competitive advantage theory suggests that businesses should pursue policies that create high-quality goods to sell at the highest possible prices. Competitive advantage happens when companies acquire or develop an attribute or combination of attributes that allow it to outperform its competitors. These attributes might include access to natural resources, such as high grade ore or inexpensive power, or access to highly trained and skilled personnel human resources. Other advantages could include better use of technology, etc.

Your Competitors use SRED Financing to Cash Flow Their CRA SRED (SR&ed) tax credit claims for Working Capital
Information for Canadian business owners on the competitive advantages of sred financing , and why the financing of a cra sred claim is a positive cash flow generating tool for improved working capital .

The Next Level of Leadership
If someone told you that humility is the key to being a more competitive company and influential leader, how long would it take before you tuned out and started waiting for the leadership training to end? As it turns out, humility is one of the ultimate competitive advantages in business. In Jim Collins' Good to Great research, he discovered two unique traits of leaders who moved companies from average performance to great: 1) intense professional will, and 2) extreme personal humility. But while humility is an nice trait, who wants humility if it’s incompatible with winning? For most people, tradition holds that the opposite of excessive ego is humility, when in fact having too little ego is as dangerous and unproductive as having too much. Humility is the equilibrium between the two extremes and catalyst for healthy ego.

Effective Marketing Tips Using Social Media
Social media is a lucrative niche, and ecommerce ventures that latch onto social networking sites to sell their products are guaranteed more returns. The competitive advantages of using social media to further your business are many and stem from a good understanding of the social web.
Featured Article

Bottom Footer



Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!
Name:
Email:
Popular Articles

Induction – your first management job

Getting The Media Attention You Deserve

The Right Job - Part Five 'Compensation'
Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.