Supply Chain Operations and Competitive Advantage

Supply Chain Operations and Competitive Advantage Students Name Institutional Affiliation Running a business has never been easy due to the various challenges and competition that companies face in the market. It is the role of the company founders to have an effective business plan that would steer the company to its success. This paper will analyze some of the factors that can contribute to a company having a competitive advantage in the market as well as the challenges faced. Given the current technological advancements, most of the business gain their competitive advantage through online platforms. Therefore, becoming an online influencer helps in the expansion of the business's market share hence gaining a competitive advantage in the market. The influencing activities involve a display of the kind of products that the businesses sell so that individuals can decide whether to purchase them or not. Influencing plays a substantial role in persuading people to advocate for your products hence increasing the market share. As well, competitive advantage can be gained by investing in deep customer relations. Customers increase a company's market share by spreading a positive word of mouth. Therefore, good customer relationships would ensure that customers receive the best services possible and would turn out to be happy with the products sold to them. This would increase the rate of customer retention since a happy client will always come back for more products (Wu, Tseng, Chiu & Lim, 2017). On the other hand, a poor customer relationship is a key aspect contributing to the failure of a company. In addition, competitive advantage can be gained by leveraging new technology. New technology is designed to help in the reduction of production costs. Hence, a company would be able to price their products lower while making enough profit. Affordable products are one way of beating the...