Strategic Management
Dr Andrew Jenkins

Individual Assignment: Report

2011
2012
Samuel TOURE U0967831
University of Huddserfield
5/12/2011
Strategic Management
Dr Andrew Jenkins

Individual Assignment: Report

2011
2012
Samuel TOURE U0967831
University of Huddserfield
5/12/2011

Executive Summary

In this strategic management assignment, we will see how organization achieve and sustain competitive advantage. As the global leader of the international express and logistics industry, we will study how DHL has gained and achieved in sustaining its position in the logistics sector. To do so, the report will be cut in two parts. Firstly, an introduction will present, explain the subject and then expose …show more content…

Differentiation and low cost are the most famous sources of sustainable competitive advantage but we can add the cost strategy (S.Clegg, C.Carter, M.Kornberger, & J.Scheitzer, 2011). They are part of the Porter’s generic strategies. For the first one, it means that a firm is able to add superior or additional features to a product a service. This differentiation can come from different sources such as different colour (computer industry), design (automobile, telephone industry), accessories (phone, mp3), payment options, etc... We call them tangible features, basically they increase the quality of the product. Then we have the intangible features, in other words, it is a unique characteristic that a company is able to provide such as exclusiveness, individuality, brand image and/or security. (S.Clegg, C.Carter, M.Kornberger, & J.Scheitzer, 2011). Companies in a very competitive industry, for example automobile, telephone, computer, clothing sector, have to spend a lot of money in research and development, innovation and a great communication to sell the qualities of the product or service to make sure the customer see the difference. In a case where a company create a brand new product, it will be in a position of