Sustainable competitive advantage: the fallacy
The speed of change in business means the notion of businesses having a sustainable competitive advantage is no longer a reality argues Dan Monheit.
Sustainable competitive advantage. What a beautiful, romantic, delusional idea. An idea that somehow still gets plenty of airplay.
Anyone who’s studied the theory of business or brands will be familiar with the concept; Brands must create or acquire attributes that let them outperform competitors for an extended period of time.
Anyone who works in the reality of business or brands will know that this is a complete fallacy.
Of course “the reality of creating a competitive advantage and then crossing it off the ‘to do’ list for the next decade is absurd” – if a company was to think that was even possible that in itself would spell the end for the company then and there. I would not dismiss the idea of a SCA because of today’s environment. There is value in creating something for your customers that is exactly what they want – certainly customer needs/wants change, but fundamentally an offering responsive to this is invaluable. McDonalds here is a perfect example of a SCA. They’re in fast food – The particulars have changed – they’re serving fast salads as well as burgers – but they still have a distinct SCA, and are still serving their customers exactly what they want. Change is vital – yes I totally agree! Transient vs sustainable – I need more elaboration to be convinced here…