Strategic advantage through innovation
Think about your organisation or one with which you are familiar and then, using
The table below, try and list the ways in which it does (or doesn’t) use innovation to
Get and stay ahead of competitors. Where possible can you give examples? How far
Might you extend your use of innovation to obtain strategic advantage?
Ways in which strategic advantage can come from innovation.
Mechanism- Strategic advantage- Does your organisation do this? -Could it?- Examples
1. Novelty in – Offering something-Does your organization do this- Could it-
Product or no one else can.
Service
2. Novelty in – Offering it in ways-Does your organization do this-Could it-Examples
Process others can’t match-
Faster, lower cost,
More customised etc.
3. Complexity –Offering something -Does your organization do this-Could it-Examples
which others find it
difficult to master.
4. Legal protection – Offering something which-Does your organization do this-Could it-
of intellectual property. Others can not do unless
they pay you a licence or
other fee.
5. Add/extend- Move basis of competition e.g.
Competitive from price of product to price
Factors. and quality, or price, quality
choice, etc.
6. Timing – First mover advantage, being first
can be worth significant market share
Market share in new product fields. Fast follwer
Advantage. Sometimes being first means you
Encounter unexpected teething problems and
It makes better sense to watch someone else make
The early misktakes and moves fast into a follow up
Product.
7. Robust design offering – Something which provides
the platform on which other
variations and generation can
be built.
8. Rewriting the rules- Offering something which represents a
a completely new product or process concept
a diferent way of doing things and makes the
old ones redundant
9. Reconfiguring the parts- Rethinnking the way in which bits of the system
work together, e.g. building more effective networks,
outsourcing and coordination a virtual company, etc.
