Competitive advantage may sound to some like one of those used and abused management catch-phrases.
Concretely it refers to a set of conditions that allow a company to create superior products and services (differential advantage) or at a lower price than its competitors (comparative advantage). That would allow that company to generate more sales or superior margins — pretty much what’s on almost every CEO’s agenda: growth and profitability.
While growth and profitability are more relevant than ever, some people talk about the death of competitive advantage. Why’s that?
The competitive advantage concept was created a few decades ago, at a time when strategy was based on the past to predict the future. It basically…
In 2005, Jim Jannard (founder of Oakley) set up a company called RED Digital Cinema, with the specific aim of creating a ultra-high definition digital camera which would be as good as the 35 mm film cameras. This very successful strategic move that changed the 100 year-old cinematographic cameras industry is analyzed here through the logic of Blue Ocean Strategy – a theory grounded in the concept of value innovation.
The traditional cinematographic camera industry
The cinematographic camera industry emerged in fact more than 100 years ago, but until recently no significant changes took place, apart from marginal technological improvements. The main medium for shooting a movie has been the celluloid film and the quality of the image (the resolution) was very high from the beginning. However, these cameras had some inconveniences: they were not very easy to use, the cinematographer (the user) could not see immediately if the scene was shot as desired (no predictability) and the workflow was very complex and time consuming (developing, processing, transferring, editing and conforming the film).
The cinematographic…
Ioan Carpus
Innovation consultant | Blue Ocean Strategy expert | Growth strategy for visionary leaders
