Companies are constantly faced with the challenge of achieving a competitive advantage over other businesses. According to Joseph Daniel McCool, writer for Bloomberg Businessweek, gaining an advantage over the competition starts with attracting the right talent to the organization. By this he means that the company must have a great leader, which is competent, committed, and has character.
All great organizations seem to be based on someone who is a great leader yet in class when discussing how to gain a competitive advantage we did not discuss this basic point. To me it somewhat goes without saying that in order for a company to succeed in any goal it must have a great leader directing it. Sure differentiating the company’s product, changing prices, becoming more efficient by cutting costs, and using different channels of distribution are very important aspects which may help in gaining a competitive advantage, but ultimately all these decisions are due to the leader. A company may be able to become efficient without much difficulty, but it will not be able to gain a competitive advantage without an innovative strategy that a great leader chooses to implement.
Steve Jobs
The epitome of a great leader. “In the past 10 years alone he has radically and lucratively reordered three markets — music, movies, and mobile telephones — and his impact on his original industry, computing, has only grown.”