Uncompetitive Advantage

Life is a mystery
Everyone must stand alone
I hear you call my name
And it feels like home
--Madonna

Competitive advantage is often the stated goal of strategic management. Innovation, productivity improvement, brand building, etc are among the activities that can give an organization an edge in a competitive industry.

The challenge, as Schumpeter observed many years ago, is that competitive advantage is always fleeting. Rivals are also busy trying to gain an edge.

In free markets, gaining, and maintaining competitive advantage is hard.

Because managers, like all humans, prefer to economize effort, they will be prone to look for ways to make their quest for strategic advantage easier. In particular they will be tempted to find ways to bend the rules in their favor so that they do not have to work so hard innovating et al. Patents, regulations, and other forms of political favor can give an organization an edge without having to endure competitive assault from rivals.

Advantage without competition.