In her book “The End of Competitive Advantage,” Rita Gunther McGrath suggests that businesses must leave behind the practice of building their brands on sustainable comparative advantage, and adopt transient competitive advantage strategies in order to stay ahead. Due to the unpredictability of both consumers and competitors, it seems essential for companies to “constantly start new strategic initiatives,” which would include coming up with new ideas and increasing the “speed with which a firm can execute” them.

Consequently, perhaps, due to companies being unable to “afford to spend months at a time crafting a single long-term strategy,” executive roles in companies, such as Chief Marketing Officer, have such short tenure. In fact, companies such as Starbucks and Coca-Cola have replaced their CMO’s five times in seven years, and four times in six years respectively.

Indeed, it seems as though the short-term thinking and accessibility required for a strategic advantage arises from creating new and transient initiatives.

Sources:

1. Gunther McGrath, Rita. “Transient Advantage.” Harvard Business Review. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2013. <http://hbr.org/2013/06/transient-advantage>.

2. Merchant, Nilofer. “Viewpoint: Twitter’s All-Male Board Spells Failure.” Time Ideas. N.p., 07 Oct. 2013. Web. 08 Oct. 2013. <http://ideas.time.com/2013/10/07/viewpoint-twitters-all-male-board-spells-failure/>.

3. Fishburne, Tom. “Cmo of the Month.” Tom Fishburne Marketoonist. N.p., 06 Oct. 2013. Web. 08 Oct. 2013. <http://tomfishburne.com/2013/10/cmo-of-the-month.html>.

4. Littlewood, Mark. “COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IS DEAD! LONG LIVE TRANSIENT ADVANTAGE!” Business of Software. N.p., 04 Oct. 2013. Web. 08 Oct. 2013. <http://businessofsoftware.org/2013/10/competitive-advantage-is-dead-long-live-transient-advantage/>.