How to Keep a Sustainable Competitive Advantage for Your Business with David DeHaven

What is your competitive advantage?

If you don't already know the answer to this, then stop reading and check out my other articles, as this is not the place to start developing your advantage.

This article is showing you how to keep and sustain your competitive advantage in the turbo-boosted business world of today.

Employ a Business Strategist

Similar to a strategic management position, but a very specialized field as this person will need to know how to establish strategies focused on what the customers will want from your industry in the 10 years. They will be required to perform these types of duties.

1. Monitor and analyses your competitors, all the time

They will constantly review all your competitors, direct and indirect to watch for any projected shifts in market position. Skills in Competitor Intelligence will be required and combined with in-depth industry knowledge of your products to be able to forecast what the competitors’ changes will mean for your competitive advantage.

2. Stay current on all technology advancements

Improvements in technology will have the most disruptive ability to remove any business competitive advantage so your strategist needs to be able to research and understand what all the forecasted technology changes will mean to your business.

3. Survey and listen to all your customers

Excellent nonverbal and consumer behavior skills will be required to recognize and understand what the subtle shifts in consumer behavior will affect your competitive advantage in the immediate and short-term future.

Imagine if you will, that you will need to have a skilled employee watching a crystal ball every minute of the day looking for the small signs that warn your business that you are about to lose your competitive advantage.

4. Conduct an in-depth analysis of the components of your advantage

They will be able to deconstruct your competitive advantage to analyze all the required components. This will enable them to develop strategies to sustain each of these components into the next 10 years of your business life.

For example, if qualifications are why your business holds the advantage, they will look ahead to see what the new qualification will be and how your business will obtain them first by establishing a professional training program each year.

If the speed of your production is why you hold an advantage, they will research all the new technology, worldwide, that could improve the speed of production and set aside sufficient budget resources to make that purchase before the equipment is on the general market.

In military terms, they are the advance scouts seeking out your enemies' weaknesses and makes sure they are always weaker than your organization by keeping it two steps ahead and free of obstacles seen in the future of your industry.

The world of business today is moving fast, technology is outdated by the time you get it home, and global online communities hold the power where flat earth pricing is now a standard strategy.

 Working in the change management field I have seen that organizations need to instill a constant changeability in their processes to ensure survival. Innovation and inspiration is the key to the new world and I bring the catalyst for change by showing a different perspective on the old way of thinking.

In effect, David DeHaven is an agent of change, and once I touch your organization change has already started.