What Are Our Competitive Strengths?
What do we mean by competitive strengths? Strengths are core competencies; skills, technologies, facilities, money and other resources that, if we capitalize on them, will contribute to our success. We can expect them to give us a competitive advantage.
Having good, customer-oriented people on your team is not really a strength unless they are truly dedicated and committed. If you are a social service agency and there are three other such agencies in your city and they are all staffed with good, customer-oriented people with professional certifications, you probably should not count your staff as a competitive strength. Will yours work longer hours, for less money, give better treatment and praise your agency to their friends? Would your competitors snap them up if they became available? If your people are better, write down "High Quality Staff" as a competitive strength.
There was a time when an auto dealer could point with pride to being "The Only Hurricane Dealer in Faroff, Nebraska" as a competitive advantage. Not so true these days.
The competitive advantage of experience is easy to misjudge. If you think your experience will be more valuable in the future than it was in the past, write it down. But if your firm or agency or service is still selling the same medicines it has sold in the corner drugstore for 40 years, that experience may not be an advantage in the future - for several reasons!
Location is another attribute that is often misjudged. For many years John Jones may have reaped the benefits of being "right downtown" in Faroff, where people could look at the new cars through his big front windows as they walked to the drugstore for coffee. Now, if Jim Johnston is selling cars from his three acres right on the new Interstate intersection it is Jim who has the strength of location, not John.
If you'd like some help with this, send me a list of attributes you think might be competitive strengths for your organization. Send it as a Comment through this blog, or via email to rmp@parkersolutions.com. I'll let you know what I think, or ask some questions.
- Some of your people may have highly effective expertise in important areas.
- An outstanding, modern and efficient manufacturing facility is a strength for a producer of goods.
- Patents on valuable products or processes or a well known trademark are certainly strengths.
- A strategic location that gives you an advantage over others located elsewhere is a strength.
- Being first to market with an exciting new product is another example.
Having good, customer-oriented people on your team is not really a strength unless they are truly dedicated and committed. If you are a social service agency and there are three other such agencies in your city and they are all staffed with good, customer-oriented people with professional certifications, you probably should not count your staff as a competitive strength. Will yours work longer hours, for less money, give better treatment and praise your agency to their friends? Would your competitors snap them up if they became available? If your people are better, write down "High Quality Staff" as a competitive strength.
There was a time when an auto dealer could point with pride to being "The Only Hurricane Dealer in Faroff, Nebraska" as a competitive advantage. Not so true these days.
The competitive advantage of experience is easy to misjudge. If you think your experience will be more valuable in the future than it was in the past, write it down. But if your firm or agency or service is still selling the same medicines it has sold in the corner drugstore for 40 years, that experience may not be an advantage in the future - for several reasons!
Location is another attribute that is often misjudged. For many years John Jones may have reaped the benefits of being "right downtown" in Faroff, where people could look at the new cars through his big front windows as they walked to the drugstore for coffee. Now, if Jim Johnston is selling cars from his three acres right on the new Interstate intersection it is Jim who has the strength of location, not John.
If you'd like some help with this, send me a list of attributes you think might be competitive strengths for your organization. Send it as a Comment through this blog, or via email to rmp@parkersolutions.com. I'll let you know what I think, or ask some questions.
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