Competitive advantage for a company means not just matching or surpassing what competitors can do

“Competitive advantage for a company means not just matching or surpassing what competitors

can do, but discovering what customers want and then profitably satisfying, and even exceeding,

their expectations. As barriers to interregional and international trade have diminished and as

access to goods and services has grown, customers can locate and acquire the best of what they

want, at an acceptable price, wherever it is in the world. Under growing competition and, hence,

rising customer expectations, a company’s penalty for complacency becomes even greater.

A strategic tool to measure the importance of the customer’s perceived value is value chain analysis.

By enabling companies to determine the strategic advantages and disadvantages of their activities

and value-creating processes in the marketplace, value chain analysis becomes essential for assessing competitive

advantage.”

-Institute of Management Accountants, Practice of Management Accounting,

(http://www.imanet.org/PDFs/Public/Research/SMA/Value%20Chain%20Analysis.pdf)

Working in groups you will prepare a report analysing a selected industry value chain and a group of key companies within

that industry.

Your report will identify the key value chain elements of the industry and by analysis demonstrate how each…….