1- Minimum of 300 words in the body texts Content must include:

• Summary of the author’s Main Thread – no less than 125 words
• What you agreed with, did not agree with and why – no less than 125 words
• Summary of the author’s Main Thread – no less than 125 words
• What you agreed with, did not agree with and why – no less than 125 words

Minimum of 2 sources from the literature in addition to course

Krystal Hertenstein Threat

Crafting an overall competitive approach is the culmination of the gathering of internal and external factors and reviewing to create clear objectives. When creating objectives and crafting strategies, information must be presented to leaders. According to Gamble et al. (2019), an organization must understand how strongly positioned its business units are. There are different methodologies to craft competitive approaches. The use of the Porter Five Generic Strategies can be used to better identify which metrics should be sought after (Gamble et al. 2019, p. 89). Competitive areas exist in the areas of cost leadership, differentiation, and market landscapes. Globalization impacts every business with added complexity. According to Gamble et al. (2019), an effective and method to expand geographic interactions if to align with competitor companies that have existing operations.

Process: Competitive Approach

The concept of joining competitive forces reminds us that there are many paths to gain a competitive edge. Globalization has a large impact on strategic planning, and any business and trying to create a competitive advantage in new geographic markets must understand the impact of those new areas. According to Rumelt (2011), extending a company's competitive advantages into new areas and markets can also extend and reach new competitors. The planning process is crossing the external reviews of how to create competitive advantages. According to Ni et al. (2019), there are various reasonable models that can be adapted to allocate the right capacity to the right customer’s needs. The specific of how the organizations should approach markets must be detailed out how to craft competitive strategies. A focus on creating strategic plans for differentiation factors should have a focus on being attached to driving value for products or services. The process of understanding which competitive strategy to align with must start with understanding the path to the market advantage. A competitive characteristic can be seen in multiple ways; cost or value aspects can be paths for creating competitive advantages. There are then paths that allow for hybrid creation of cost and quality drivers that work to outline the best potential placement for their product or service. The process for choosing competitive advantage strategies can follow with the organizational path for choosing strategic objectives.

Strategic Thinking: Deciding on Competitive Approach

Competitive approaches are required to be integrated into a firm’s overall differentiation objectives that align with their strategic objectives. The concept of competitive displacement is anchored indirectly addressing a competitor’s edge and working to displace a product or service from the market. According to Mierzejewska et al. (2017), data will need to be gathered and monitored data, and a methodological approach must be used to track and test approaches for market advantages. Companies make choices when looking to differentiate or expand markets or enter new markets. The focus then, with so many paths ahead for an organization, is for leadership to align to a primary reason and method on how to address emerging needs. Competing in markets can then be a proactive and reactive relationship. Markets drive requirements, and companies must drive new trends in markets to maintain advantages. A proactive stance in the market might also be to align with a related business. According to Rumlet (2011), a strategic fit exists whenever one or more activities comprising value chains are coupled and aligned to seek the same intent; this can occur with alliances with other organizations or brands (p.159). The need to seek value for products and services is a fundamental theme that is threaded in many competitive approach strategies.

Decision Models: Competitive Choices

With the numerous models presented to leaders and organizations, it is a vital skill for organizations to understand which competitive approaches to seek. According to Rumlet (2011), the starting place for choosing a competitive strategy plan starts with understanding how these core five generic strategies can be a starting point for an organization. “The problem‐solving perspective on how firms organize their activities provides a useful basis for a systematic examination of the links between strategy and value capture” (Desyllas et al., 2018, para. 5). The basis for value is seen in each generic model are developed as the organization develops through the generic competitive advantage model.

Conclusion

Understating how services will perform in the market is a vital next step for organizations to work towards gaining market advantage. Competitive approaches can start with the noted five-competitive forces model, but the outcome must be understood. In order to focus on creating differentiation, customer needs and appetite need to be understood, no matter which path is chosen. The objectives for organizations should be to distinguish themselves these basic starting points can support filtering factors and market conditions to further understand which path is most viable

2- Minimum of 300 words in the body texts Content must include:

• Summary of the author’s Main Thread – no less than 125 words
• What you agreed with, did not agree with and why – no less than 125 words
• Summary of the author’s Main Thread – no less than 125 words
• What you agreed with, did not agree with and why – no less than 125 words

Minimum of 2 sources from the literature in addition to course

Jason Brady Thread

The purpose of this work is to explore this week’s core theme of deciding a competitive approach. When deciding on a competitive approach an organization must consider their rivals, their own strengths and weakness, their timeline, and their overall goal using the approach. There are different types of focuses on the competitive approach. It will be the duty of leadership to determine what strategy will best fit their business goals, objectives, and culture.

Process: Deciding on a competitive approach

Deciding on a competitive approach can be a time-consuming task because of the importance and sensitivity of utilizing the correct strategy. Leadership in an organization must come together to brainstorm and figure out what strategy will best fit their culture and goals. According to Al-Tarawneh (2011), “there are numerous approaches to the decision-making process and which is best, depends on the nature of the problem, the availability of resources, the cost, decision-maker characteristics, time pressure, and others factors” (p. 5). All these above factors play an influential role in the effectiveness of a competitive approach strategy.

There are five generic competitive strategies that a company can use to gain a competitive advantage. Those competitive strategies are as follows: low-cost provider strategy, broad differentiation strategy, focuses on low-cost strategy, focused differentiation strategy, and the best-cost provider strategy. According to Gamble Peteraf, and Thompson (2019), a competitive strategy involves the details of leadership's plan to successfully securing a competitive advantage over its competitors. In the competitive strategic approach, a firm can also decide to launch an offensive competitive attack. According to Gamble et al. (2019), “the best offensives use a company’s most competitively potent resources to attack rivals in those competitive areas where they are weakest” (p. 112). Utilizing a company’s strengths to attack a rival company’s weakness is a bold tactic and can be very beneficial to the aggressor. Before this strategy is carried out, the leadership must decide the competitive strategic scope.

Strategic thinking: Deciding on a competitive scope

Utilizing a global competitive scope is an excellent method to focus in on how to approach other cultures and countries. There many ways to utilize a global competitive scope strategy. According to Gamble et al. (2019), a global strategy is when a firm plan is the same in all countries; it will sell the same product or service under the same name with little to no differentiation in each individual country. This strategy may work depending on the country’s sensitivity to the product or service and if it meets their requirements. Geographically a better strategy to implement would be the transnational strategy. According to Gamble et al. (2019), the transnational strategy involves using the five generic competitive strategies in all country markets, but it involves some differentiation and customization to fit a country's local economic status. Leaders should take heed to these factors and carefully draft out their strategic global plan.

Production and distribution scopes are also important due to the value added of have a smooth and flawless means of delivering goods and services to a business’s customers. Some companies today choose to outsource their products or services. According to Gamble et al. (2019), outsourcing is when a business contracts out certain activities of the value chain to outside entities and strategic foreign partners. Using this outsourcing strategy can allow a company to focus on the bigger part of its business when certain activities are outsourced. When outsourcing, a company needs to make sure it does not give away the wrong types of tasks to its partners. When the wrong activities are given away in the value chain process the company outsourcing can fall victim to the outsourcing entity. For example, CISCO (a software and coding firm) will keep their codes a secret from the outsourcing partner. This helps Cisco maintain control of all improvements to their system and prevent the likelihood of imitation of their code from competitors. Using this knowledge gained from deciding on the competitive scope, a firm can then make a decision on what decision model should be utilized.

Decision model

In reviewing the decision model, the team model seemed to be appropriate in the discussion of the competitive approach. According to Krogerus and Tschäppeler (2018), “the team model will help you to judge your team. Begin by defining the skills, expertise, and resources that you think are important for carrying out the project" (p. 126). Knowing what your team is and isn’t capable is highly important to the implementation of any strategy. Without knowing one’s own team advantages and disadvantages, it will make it difficult to be successful. According to Rumelt (2011), wealth will increase when a company's competitive advantage improves or when the demand for services increases. Working together as a team, a business can innovate and find new ways to improve their competitive advantages to increase their wealth as well. According to Srivastava, Franklin, and Martinette (2013), “to achieve a competitive advantage, firms need to constantly focus on the identification of differential product strategies, building or reshaping core competencies, acquiring unique technologies, and accumulation of intellectual property" (p. 48). It can be clearly determined there are many activities and strategies that can aid in the creation of competitive advantage for any company.

Conclusion

Creating a competitive advantage for a company can be a difficult task to accomplish. With the help of the Lord and a team of engaged coworkers, any organization can discover their hidden advantage. According to Keller (2012), the bible may not be a handbook for running a business, but it can speak on issues involving cultural, political, economic, and ethical issues. Leaders in an organization can study the Bible and learn how to evaluate life and business situations to choose the right path. In the Christian faith and in business, professionals have choices to make. Those choices sometimes come with rewards like competitive advantages and consequences such as losing money. Leaders of a firm must come together to evaluate their business status and their faith status in order to determine what steps are necessary to be successful in their industry.