Accenture's War for Talent in India

3. According to the Investopedia, “Competitive advantage is an advantage that a firm has over its competitors, allowing it

Competitive advantage exists when a firm has strategy, product or an attribute that makes the firm capable of delivering similar benefit to that of competitors at a cheaper cost. Having competitive advantage is not enough the company should be capable of sustaining that particular competitive advantage for a longer period of time.

1. Competitive advantage is always revealed by a firm earning higher profitability than its rivals.

The SWOT analysis is a great way for companies or organizations to determine their brand and product’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. In order to more effectively determine these areas, separation of internal and external issues within the company or association is crucial.

It is also stated that there are many sources that can be used to give a company competitive advantage

Porter, Michael. 1998. “Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance.” 26 Dec, 2011. Free Press, 1998.

out that the central to sustain competitive advantage is to have a creative and divergent

The more prospective the competitive advantage the more it becomes hard for it's advantage to be neutralized .

1. What is competitive advantage, and how does it relate to a company’s business model?

Competitive advantage(CA) is an advantage competitors gain by providing or offering customers or consumers greater value for their money through product and service differentiation or through lower prices. Maintaining competitive advantage is crucial to many businesses or organizations' success in order to survive in the market. Competitive advantage is characterized by superior performance which could be an attribute to outperform the competitors whether current or potential; or gaining a higher market share in a particular industry thereby ensuring market leadership; or ultimately, maximization of profit.(JOBBER 2010)

The process of SWOT analysis is a universal method widely approached in corporations to scan the internal and external environment so that companies can deploy relevant countermeasures to make improvements. It contains four elements, they are strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (Helms & Nixon, 2010).

Competitive strategy is the moves and methods that the firm has taken and is taking to appeal buyers, improve its market position, and to endure competitive pressures. The strategy is about what a firm’s capability to try to knock off competitors and attain competitive advantage, which can be offensive or defensive. There are three approaches to competitive strategy, which are low-cost leadership strategy where struggling to be the overall low-cost manufacturer in the in industry. Moreover, pursuing to distinguish one’s product offering from competitors (differentiation strategy), and the last one is focus or niche strategy where aiming on thin portion of the market rather than the whole market (Porter, 1998).

Competitive advantage is explained by Mahoney and Pandian (1992) as the function of industry analysis, organizational governance and the firm’s effects in the form of resource advantages and strategies. In order for a firm to be competitive it must adapt to the volatile business environment and through strategic management decisions establish a competitive advantage that will ultimately produce superior performance relative to its competitors (Akimova 2000).

A company that pursues and achieves strategic outcomes that boost its competitiveness and strength in the marketplace is in much better position to improve its future financial performance.

The first important part of a SWOT analysis is to improve the viability of an organization. SWOT identifies the risk which can arise from future threats coupled with the organization weakness. For example, a pharma company ABC has invested heavily in R& D of existing product where a new competitor is also entering with same product. Then company ABC has to decide whether it is strategically important to deal with external threat or improve the internal weakness. Company ABC can continue the R & D progress to improve the quality of existing product or else can diversify the resource to offer the product at less cost i.e. improving its efficiency. So, SWOT plays an important role in such situation and proves to be a beneficial tool to take appropriate decision of improving the weakness