Creating Competitive Advantage: Give Customers a Reason to Choose You Over… (edition 2006)

Another book on creating your value proposition. Worth reading for it has some good points in it, but takes a while to get to the point. I like her discussion on the concept that competitive advantage needs to be objective not subjective. ( )

Using telling case studies, Jaynie L. Smith reveals in “Creating Competitive Advantage” how to exploit your competitive advantages to keep your firm alive and growing.

In her research, the Florida chair for The Executive Committee, an international organization of more than 11,000 CEOs, claims to have found only two CEOs of more than 1,000 middle market companies that could succinctly and clearing articulate their firm’s competitive advantage.

According to the author, the five fatal flaws of most companies:
1. They do not have a competitive advantage but think they do.
2. They have a competitive advantage but don’t know what it is—so they opt to lower prices.
3. They know what their competitive advantage is but neglect to tell clients.
4. They mistake “strengths” for competitive advantages.
5. They ignore on competitive advantages when making strategic and operational decisions.

These flaws, the author states, need not be fatal. In ten short, yet thought provoking chapters, she guides the reader through a plan that identifies his or her competitive strengths and prepares an action plan to exploit them.

“Back to basics” is this simple, well-written book’s message. Yet, it is a message business leaders will ignore at their firm’s peril. ( )