C H A P T E R S I X
The Past and Future
of Competitive Advantage
CLAYTON M. CHRISTENSEN
Competitive advantage is a concept that often inspires in strategists
a form of idol worship—a desire to imitate the strategies
that make the most successful companies successful. It is interesting,
however, that strategists have viewed precisely opposite factors
to be sources of competitive advantage at different points in the histories
of a number of industries. For example, Henry Ford’s emphasis
on focus has been touted right next to General Motors’
product-line breadth as the key to success. Today, the outsourcing
flexibility inherent in the nonintegrated business models of Cisco
Systems and Dell Computer is held up as a model for all to emulate,
whereas a generation ago IBM’s vertical integration was widely
considered an unassailable source of competitive advantage. In the
1980s, power-tool maker Black & Decker aggressively consolidated
its diffused......
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Approximate Word Count: 3448
Approximate Pages: 14 (260 words per double-spaced page) |