Creating Competitive Advantage: Give Customers a Reason to Choose You Over Your Competitors (Hardcover)

~ (Author), William G. Flanagan (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"So many companies think that differentiation is the key to success. It isn't. The key is knowing how to articulate what's different or better about your product. Creating Competitive Advantage is a must-have for any CEO's library."
-- David Neeleman, CEO, JetBlue Airways

"Jaynie Smith presents you with the most valuable marketing edge you can ever have -- and it won't cost you one cent… Just be sure that you unleash it before your competitors do… The sooner you read [Creating Competitive Advantage], the sooner you'll profit from it."
-- Jay Conrad Levinson, author of Guerrilla Marketing

"Any book that tells you how to be different from your competitors is worth reading. It's what good strategy is all about. Creating Competitive Advantage is just such a book."
-- Jack Trout, author of Trout on Strategy

“With engaging writing, telling insights, and inescapable logic, Jaynie Smith shows us how Creating Competitive Advantage is key to a successful business.”
-- Robert B. Cialdini, author of Influence: Science & Practice

“Creating Competitive Advantage is a weapon every business person needs in their arsenal to survive in today’s tough world.”
–Jack Stack, President & CEO, SRC Holdings Corp., author of The Great Game of Business

Jaynie Smith’s experience as an advisor to scores of CEO’s has been distilled in this comprehensive look at sound competitive strategies. It’s back to the basics, an exercise every business needs to revisit!”
-- Clark Johnson, former CEO, Pier I Imports

"Compelling! The clarity with which Jaynie Smith presents her message is particularly valuable because the concept is, among business leaders, frequently discussed but often understood only superficially.  Finding and using your ad... --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Review

"So many companies think that differentiation is the key to success. It isn't. The key is knowing how to articulate what's different or better about your product. Creating Competitive Advantage is a must-have for any CEO's library."
-- David Neeleman, CEO, JetBlue Airways

"Jaynie Smith presents you with the most valuable marketing edge you can ever have -- and it won't cost you one cent… Just be sure that you unleash it before your competitors do… The sooner you read [Creating Competitive Advantage], the sooner you'll profit from it."
-- Jay Conrad Levinson, author of Guerrilla Marketing

"Any book that tells you how to be different from your competitors is worth reading. It's what good strategy is all about. Creating Competitive Advantage is just such a book."
-- Jack Trout, author of Trout on Strategy

“With engaging writing, telling insights, and inescapable logic, Jaynie Smith shows us how Creating Competitive Advantage is key to a successful business.”
-- Robert B. Cialdini, author of Influence: Science & Practice

“Creating Competitive Advantage is a weapon every business person needs in their arsenal to survive in today’s tough world.”
–Jack Stack, President & CEO, SRC Holdings Corp., author of The Great Game of Business

Jaynie Smith’s experience as an advisor to scores of CEO’s has been distilled in this comprehensive look at sound competitive strategies. It’s back to the basics, an exercise every business needs to revisit!”
-- Clark Johnson, former CEO, Pier I Imports

"Compelling! The clarity with which Jaynie Smith presents her message is particularly valuable because the concept is, among business leaders, frequently discussed but often understood only superficially.  Finding and using your advantage is the key to not only survival but more importantly, attractively profitable survival. Should be required reading for business leaders."
— Chuck Lillis, former CEO, MediaOne

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Broadway Business (April 25, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385517092
• ISBN-13: 978-0385517096
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #23,336 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Amaturish at best, March 8, 2007

By	well informed optimist (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

A leader of a strategic sub group of a non-profit to which I belong requested that all participants read this book. So I bought it. I am surprised how I lasted as long as I did, to page 20. The number of mistakes, imprecise definitions and simply clueless concept manipulations has been staggering from the beginning.

This reminded me my first marketing class in the business school. After listening to a student proudly spewing buzz words, a professor (now at Harvard) said, "I do believe that you are ready for job interviews. Now can you tell me in your own words what exactly have you been trying to say?" Silence followed.

Examples? I'll use just one of many in the first 20 pages. In her example of JTECH on page 10, Ms. Smith states that at HER workshop, "JTACH executives set about determining exactly what the company's strongest competitive advantage was. It's service was great, it's equipment top of the line, it's costs competitive. But that what the competition said, too. JTECH needed a simple, strong, accurate, and convincing statement to differentiate itself from its competitors.

JTECH team brainstormed at the workshop and afterward to determine and articulate JTECH's best competitive advantage - in straightforward, quantifiable terms. They kicked it around among themselves, asked their customers, and finally nailed it down:

Of the fifty largest chains who used paging,
100 percent use JTECH."

Just a few pages later (not further than 20) the author differentiates competitive advantage from a statement.

Wait a minute, you just said that "Of the fifty largest chains who used paging,
100 percent use JTECH," was an advantage (not just any, THE STRONGEST ONE!) or was it just a statement, or can a statement be a competitive advantage, or .... What exactly are you talking about, Ms. Author?

According to this example the biggest mistake that Detroit made is that it has not "nailed it crystal clear that, "100 percent of Americans buy cars from Detroit." Otherwise Toyota have had no chance. If only Detroit C-level executives attended your workshop! That by itself would be the strongest competitive advantage. Alas!

Competitive advantage is NOT something that you or your competition say or do not say. It's a value that you offer to your customers that none of your competition can match and, for which customers are willing to pay. As a result you are receiving profits above (hopefully significantly) your cost of capital on a sustainable basis.

None of the classic strategy text books on competitive advantage or economics of strategy would consider statement, "Of the fifty largest chains who used paging, 100 percent use JTECH," as a competitive advantage. None!

On page 16 the author states, " Competitive advantage goes by other names, as well: Unique selling proposition. Distinguishing features. Competitive edge. Discriminators. Differentiators."

Well, Ms. Author, you just passed a test for being ready for an entrance level marketing/strategy interview. However these are not synonyms.

The fact is that Unique selling proposition can be a competitive advantage or NOT. It can as well be a competitive disadvantage. Or neither if you wish. The decisive criteria would be does this Unique Selling Proposition produce a sustainable returns above costs of capital and above what "not-unique" selling proposition of a competitor produces.

Same goes with all other fancy-schmancy buzzwords that author used in the last example.

I would have given this book zero or negative number of stars, but that was not an option. To be constructive buy an old-good Porter's Competitive Advantage and begin to identify, develop, and preserve your competitive advantages and learn how to undermine ones of your competitors.

To all the positive reviewers I can only say, "Ignorance is a bliss." Read Porter then re-evaluate this book and be on your way to success.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Threat Not Seen, June 2, 2006

By	Craig L. Howe "The Pointed Pundit" (Darien, CT United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Using telling case studies, Jaynie L. Smith reveals in "Creating Competitive Advantage" how to exploit your competitive advantages to keep your firm alive and growing.

In her research, the Florida chair for The Executive Committee, an international organization of more than 11,000 CEOs, claims to have found only two CEOs of more than 1,000 middle market companies that could succinctly and clearing articulate their firm's competitive advantage.

According to the author, the five fatal flaws of most companies:
1. They do not have a competitive advantage but think they do.
2. They have a competitive advantage but don't know what it is--so they opt to lower prices.
3. They know what their competitive advantage is but neglect to tell clients.
4. They mistake "strengths" for competitive advantages.
5. They ignore on competitive advantages when making strategic and operational decisions.

These flaws, the author states, need not be fatal. In ten short, yet thought provoking chapters, she guides the reader through a plan that identifies his or her competitive strengths and prepares an action plan to exploit them.

"Back to basics" is this simple, well-written book's message. Yet, it is a message business leaders will ignore at their firm's peril.

14 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Shameless Self Promotion, August 12, 2006

By	Jay (NJ) - See all my reviews

After reading the Amazon reviews of this book I enthustiastically ordered it only to now believe that the reviews have been "peppered" by well wishers. The author has undoubtedly read the consultants handbook that recommends writing a book to extol the benefits of your practice and the author has done just that. The topic of competitive advantage takes a back seat to tales of glory of how the author has succeeded on the lecture circuit, with seminars and serving a broad range of clients. The stoties told are directed at agrandising the author rather than making relevant points about competitive advantage. This is a book for neophites to the competitive advantage arena who would be better advised to look elsewhere for a book on topic rather than one intended as shameless self promotion for the author. I will offer my used copy for resale as almost new since it unfortunately didn't get underlined as I normally do.