Gain a Decisive Competitive Edge and stop competing on price
It’s the familiar tale: compromise on price or lose the contract!
But you need the work. So you discount. Or your salespeople commit to impossible promises about delivery, service levels and lead times — hoping against hope that production will work it out.
Some smart companies instead develop and exploit an advantage that insulates them from competitive pressures. A Decisive Competitive Edge (DCE) that satisfies a significant client need, and which competitors cannot easily emulate.
Here’s what they have in common — and how to apply their methods for similar results.
You don’t need to bet on risky R&D investments
You might be surprised to find success for these companies has nothing to do with deep pockets and expensive, high-risk R&D strategies that are subject to vast uncertainty.
In fact, these companies avoid the profit erosion of continuous price-competition with a decidedly low-tech, holistic approach. They realise that improvements in production operations and project management open up DCEs. It might be consistent on-time, in-full delivery or a commitment to full, constant availability.
But they also have an uncanny ability to unite all departments and all levels of management to press home this unique advantage.
Change founders under management distraction
The management challenge is twofold: not simply to identify and make necessary structural changes, but to synchronise everyone so progress doesn’t falter.
A DCE often forces substantial change in sales execution. Yet conventional sales methods are often unable to capitalise on a competitive edge that stems from anything other than the product itself.
If management is distracted at this critical point, simple human nature means backsliding is almost inevitable — some units will fail to align and the initiative falters.
The secret of success: strategy and tactics
The solution is a simple change synchronisation tool (a tree of Strategy and Tactics) that accelerates adoption of necessary changes.
Management attention is focused where — and when — it’s needed, to enforce unity of approach and ensure buy-in.
And, because it prioritises actions that deliver the greatest results most quickly, it gives sales and marketing (in particular) the tools to rapidly achieve success without affecting stability.
How to get a head start
It’s entirely possible to go it alone and find (and exploit) your Decisive Competitive Edge yourself.
But if you’re in a hurry — if you want to get to the end-state quickly, with minimal need to backtrack — then we’re here to help.
We work closely with clients to solve their challenges with competitiveness, and achieve the organisation-wide synchronisation of purpose to ensure your DCE doesn’t falter.
If you’d like we can do a factory analysis and 40-minute Executive Briefing with you and your senior team to help you explore the potential of a DCE to transform the way you do business. At the minimum, you’ll come away with some simple initiatives that you can move on right away to help identify your DCE — and perhaps even generate some quick performance improvements.
Find out how we can help you
Goldratt UK are consistently running implementations across the United Kingdom, but we tend to be heavily booked so it’s wise to plan in advance.
Complete the form, to register your interest and we will get in contact with you to give you more information about how we can help you and discuss what we have to offer you, after all, we want to give you the best service possible and create amazing value for our customers.