Page 26 - (DK) The Business Book

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IN CONTEXT
YOU CAN LEARN ALL FOCUS
Analytical tools
YOU NEED TO KNOW KEY DATES
1950s Harvard academics
ABOUT THE COMPETITION’S George Smith and C. Roland
Christensen develop tools to
OPERATION BY LOOKING analyze companies and
competition.
IN HIS GARBAGE CANS 1960s US management
consultant Albert Humphrey
STUDY THE COMPETITION leads a research project that
yields SOFT analysis, the
forerunner to his later
SWOT analysis.
1982 US professor Heinz
Weihrich develops the TOWS
matrix which uses the threats
to a company as the starting
point for formulating strategy.
2006 Japanese academics
Shinno, Yoshioka, Marpaung,
and Hachiga develop computer
software that combines SWOT
analysis with AHP (Analytic
Hierarchy Process).

hether a company is
long established or in its
W start-up phase, a key
strategic issue is its competitive
advantage—the factor that gives it
an edge over its competitors. The
only way to establish, understand,
and protect competitive advantage
is to study the competition. Who is
competing with the company for its
customers’ time and money? Do
they sell competitive products or
potential substitutes? What are their
strengths and weaknesses? How
are they perceived in the market?
For Ray Kroc, the US entrepreneur
behind the success of fast-food
chain McDonalds, this reportedly
involved inspecting competitors’