Creating Competitive Advantage
By Jaynie L. Smith
Rating – 5 stars
June 2, 2006
The Threat Not Seen
Using telling case studies, Jaynie L. Smith reveals in
“Creating Competitive Advantage” how to exploit your competitive advantages to
keep your firm alive and growing.
In her research, the Florida chair for The Executive
Committee, an international organization of more than 11,000 CEOs, claims to
have found only two CEOs of more than 1,000 middle market companies that could
succinctly and clearing articulate their firm’s competitive advantage.
According to the author, the five fatal flaws of most
companies:
They do not have a competitive
advantage but think they do.
They have a competitive advantage
but don’t know what it is—so they opt to lower prices.
They know what their competitive
advantage is but neglect to tell clients.
They mistake “strengths” for
competitive advantages.
They ignore on competitive
advantages when making strategic and operational decisions.
These flaws, the author states, need not be fatal. In ten
short, yet thought provoking chapters, she guides the reader through a plan that
identifies his or her competitive strengths and prepares an action plan to
exploit them.
“Back to basics” is this simple, well-written book’s
message. Yet, it is a message business leaders will ignore at their firm’s
peril.
