What is Competitive Advantage?

Competitive Advantage
Douglas Weber
An organization can be better than its competition without having a competitive advantage. Competitive advantage is a unique capability of an organization that is not easily imitated, creating superior customer value.

Competitive Advantage
Shazwan Mahboob, Student (MBA), United Kingdom, Member
In simple terms, it is the unique selling point of a company.
For example, Coca Cola's secret formula or KFC's secret recipe for chicken.
Hope I answered your question.

Competitive Advantage
Gajaba Gunawardena, HR Consultant, Sri Lanka, Member
It is a relatively temporary phenomenon achieved through strategic marketing mix.

Competitive Advantage
Jaap de Jonge, Editor, Netherlands
Note the difference between a competitive advantage and a SUSTAINABLE competitive advantage!
The last one is not temporarily but last for a long time.
That is why a sustainable competitive advantage is much more valuable then a 'regular' competitive advantage to any firm who can achieve it.

What is a Competitive Advantage?
Juan Pereira, Manager, Puerto Rico, Member
Is the reason why a customer picks you instead of the competitor. You do something better, different or integrate a mix of features that is unique to the marketplace you are doing business with. Sometimes it's that you are closer to the customer than anybody else, or that you have a faster response, or that your are cheaper.
But it must be recognizable by your customers.

What is Competitive Advantage
Mohammed, HR Consultant, Saudi Arabia, Member
CA is the ability of the organisation to differentiate itself in the eyes of the customer from its competition, and the ability to operate at a lower cost and hence at greater profit than the competition.
Successful companies either have a cost advantage or a value advantage.
A major concern is that a CA is not automatically a sustainable and defensible competitive advantage!

Competitive Advantage
David Matwa Nyabwari
@Shaheem: I think that it is shallow, use of the same term for its definition. Again it misses an allusion to what make the organisation better than the 'rivals'.

Competitive Advantage - One Definition
Andrew Blaine, Business Consultant, South Africa, Member
A competitive advantage is:
One, or more, unique attributes in a business entity that makes the customer choose to do business with that entity rather than with its competition.
To be of value, CA needs to have a period of sustainability to provide the business with sufficient time for it to establish itself in the market place and attain a stage where maintenance and growth of the business generated is not dependant on the advantage derived from the attribute/s.
In short, it is useful for so long as is necessary for the business entity to become self-sustaining from its operations without the support of the competitive advantage.