Competitive Strategy: Analyzing and Implementing Effective Strategies for Competitive Advantage

Competitive Strategy

In this competitive business world, every organisation aims to have sustainable growth. To attain
the organisational goals, every organisation needs to plan strategically for a longer period of
time. This long term planning for achieving a competitive advantage in any industry is known as
the competitive strategy. The competitive strategies analyse the current market condition,
predicts the future and provide a guideline what the company should do in order to have the
competitive advantages. There are many types of strategies. In this report, three major
competitive strategies have been discussed and their practical examples have been provided in
terms of the current business environment.
1

Five Forces Model
The five forces model is a strategy developed by Michael E Porter to help any company to
manage the attractiveness and the competitiveness of that company in a particular industry
(Belton, 2017). This strategy helps a business to understand the current scenario of any industry
and how to deal with that situation effectively.
Figure 1: Porter’s Five Forces Model
Source: (Dulčić et al., 2012)
Threat of New Entrants: Adidas is a large footwear company in the world also operating in the
Australian market. The threat of new entrants is comparatively low because it will require a new
firm to have a huge capital, skilled human resources along with an effective supply chain
management (Andersén, 2014). Also, Adidas has a huge brand image, skilled human resources,
unique business model, strong supply chain process, also the other brands such as Nike, Puma
etc. are also very famous in this industry. So a new firm will rarely dare to enter the market and
compete with these giants.
Threat of Substitutes: Adidas provides its customers with premium products. Nowadays Adidas
is not only a sports-focused company. It is now being considered as a fashion brand also. The
threat of substitute is moderate in this case. Because there is a little substitute for the type of
products that Adidas offers in the Australian market. Companies like Nike, Puma are the main
2