Category: Blogs

By virtually every measure – growth in international trade, foreign direct investment or cross-border flows of technology – globalization is becoming increasingly pervasive. Many of the barriers that kept the industries and economies of different countries relatively isolated from one another are either declining or vanishing. Witness, for example – worldwide ideological shifts from state-controlled economies to market-driven economies, emergence of regional free-trade zones (such as the EU, ASEAN, NAFTA, and Mercosur), globalization of currencies, globalization of media and revolutionary changes in the cost and effectiveness of international communications and transportation technologies. Given these trends, it is not surprising that…

Managers often have great difficulty figuring out where to start when analyzing the nature of their competitive advantage or lack thereof relative to competitors. Let’s say you’re trying to compare IBM vs. Accenture in IT services or Coke vs. Pepsi in cola-flavored sodas. Where would you start? How would you bring a structured approach to the analysis? In analyzing your competitive advantage relative to one or more competitors, the key is remember that there are two faces of competitive advantage: “onstage” and “backstage.” Onstage competitive advantage (or disadvantage) refers to the perceptions of target customers about how your goods and…