Abstract
Modern business has become excessively competitive compelling business to put their best strategies into play. One workable and effective strategy is the maintenance of superiority in the five competitive priorities. It is the contention of this paper that modern world class organizations can maintain the competitive priorities. These relate to quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and costs. The paper appreciates the colossal responsibility conferred on business towards the maintenance of superiority but equally contends that this could be navigated by proper organizational design, planning and final implementation. In addition, the paper seeks to illustrate that onerous tasks lies with the management though the actualization must entertain the contributions of the employees. Finally, the paper illustrates the benefits and costs that come with the approach. It appreciates that while the approach is costly financially and presents ethical dilemmas, in the long run the benefits go into increasing revenues and developing a positive brand image for the company.
The five major competitive priorities in their order of preference could be cited as quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and cost. It is on the premise of achieving and enunciating all these priorities that a company is able to position it strategically and compete effectively in a way that ensures successful pursuit of the overall company objectives are achieved. It is this paper’s contention that a world class organization can achieve superiority in all he five competitive priorities. However, this paper recognizes the difficulty and challenges posited by an ambition and objective to achieve all these priorities and maintain a firm strategic position at the top. This paper shall examine the priorities, how the company can achieve superiority over others in relation to the priorities and the pros and cons consequent of their implementation. In the long run, it should be appreciated that overall management is tough and often seeks to maximize on the priorities while minimizes the potential challenges in the firm.
In the ideal business environment, the level of competition has compelled management to ensure their best in all their services. In that vein, organizations have had to employ modern concepts that guarantee one hundred percent performance. In the managerial concern, modern concepts have been introduced which have the abilities and technical capacities to enable the achievement of the five competitive priorities. This section of the paper shall briefly explain the competitive priorities and illustrate their nature, their characters and their overall effect on the business.
Quality has always been an outstanding competitive strategy. Quality relates to the degree of the service and standard of the product in relation to the fulfilment of the client’s needs. A high quality product or service would fulfil the client’s needs in a better and more satisfying manner as compared to a lower quality product. In that context, quality can be defined as a measure of the product or service’s ability to satisfy the intended need that it was designed to address. Quality enables a company develop a brand image that would position it strategically in the market and possibly facilitate its development of customer loyalty. To that extent, quality remains an essential component of a progressive business organization. Such an organization can maintain superiority in quality through a deliberate application of a system that is efficient and operational. This system must be consistently applied in line with the need to meet all the quality aspects. In addition, the organization needs to develop a total quality assurance group within the organization whose function among other things would be to advise on matters of quality.
Speed on the other hand, relates to the fast and timely delivery of services and products. Speed considers elements of effectiveness and on the time deliveries. Speed when applied in combination with other factors, enables the firm develop a customer loyalty and contributes positively to the brand image development. Speed superiority can be maintained through deliberate and comprehensive management. One, the organization must carry out feedback analysis and identify all the key areas of operations. These key areas of operation must then be properly planned for and conferred upon sufficient amounts of resources and personnel. This would ensure their timely and proper delivery hence overall impact on speed.
Dependability refers to the consistency that develops a reliability culture among the clients. Dependability considers elements of robustness and the overall stability of the firm in the industry. A stable, robust and reliable firm would be considered dependable. There are no two ways on achieving dependability. The firm must ensure it is stable and that the processes are robust and well-coordinated. This would boil down to positive contributions on the overall brand image which develops a reliability culture among the client base.
Flexibility relates to aspects of ease of change and reaction to prevailing economic, social and political conditions operant in the business environment. The firm is able to achieve superiority in flexibility through a careful and technically pursued diversification and differentiation. This enables the company shift from one point to the other and effectively enables the cushion itself from potential pitfalls and attendant risks inherent in certain segments of the market. In that vein, the firm assumes a flexibility that would allow it vary in its portfolio of products depending on the operating conditions.
Finally, cost refers to the consideration of incurred expenses and the final pricing of products and services. Cost as a competitive priority assumes the objective in which expenses incurred in the business are minimized as much as possible and the savings transferred into lower pricing in the market. Therefore, companies can maintain superiority in costs through the minimization of internal and external expenses and the spread of the savings earned on the overall pricing. This would attract the clients’ segment that is sensitive to prices of commodities.
The implementation of the suggestions mentioned in the previous sections comes with its pros and cons. This section of the paper shall discuss the implementation process and the attendant pros and cons. In achieving quality, management and indeed, the entire organization must make colossal sacrifices and direct their energies in the full delivery of the services expected of them. In this light, it often is advisable that the company undertakes a deliberate and predetermined implementation of already simulated and budget models. This means the activities shall be guided by a plan that has already been evaluated and approved by the management team. In addition, the implementation must assume an inclusionary approach that takes into consideration all the interests and preferences of the stakeholders in the organization. This may manifest in management by agreements and management by objective models where the management agree on a set of objectives with the employees and undertake to implement them. This approach is not only inclusive but also bears the characteristic of being effective and orderly in nature. It eliminates any ambiguity, misdirection and misinformation in the delivery of services.
Often the implementation has a number of pros. For starters, the organization would be cohesive and orderly leading to an overall positive performance in the market. This would not only boost its sales, but would at the same time ensure it grows it brand which helps in the expansion and control of a target market. In addition, the implementation that is tailored towards maintaining superiority in the market on the competitive priorities ensures the company reflects certainty, organization and efficiency. A good example of this application can be seen in the organizational efficiencies at the Delta Airlines. In this company, the organization is influenced by the need to ensure the competitive priorities are met in full. It is this approach that is attributed to the stellar performance of Delta in the airline industry.
These activities, however, come with their cons. First, the development and implementation process is costly affair. The costs come in various phases such as training and orientation of the workforce, oversight and supervision costs, marketing and feedback collection costs, among other engagements. Other than costs, usually this approach requires that the business observes its rule of engagement to the letter. In that context, the business has to water through a lot of resistance within the market. Often these present substantive ethical concerns and dilemmas. The business may choose to employ only legal and morally acceptable mechanisms in the pursuit of their interests. In such cases, other competitors, regulators and supervisors may not apply the same logic posing challenges to the overall implementation process.
In the long run, maintaining superiority in the major competitive priorities has its own consequences. While the business ultimately stands to gain, the process is rigorous and often involving. In addition, the financial implications are often higher than normal engagements. It trickles down to the concept of the higher the risks the higher the expected returns. However, it should be appreciated that the overall impact is positive to the company. This approach as has been illustrated enables the company maximize on its opportunities while reduce the effects of the weaknesses. In the same vein, it communicates into efficiency of the market through a competitive approach to business that compels all players in the market to put their best foot forward. The implementation of the competitive priorities should be appreciated for its ultimate returns.
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