Presently, different markets are overflowing with virtually highly-competitive businesses that offer almost the same kinds of products and services. This is the very reason why it is not unusual for customers to ask what makes one offer different from another. In other times, customers might also wonder how long can businesses survive in competitive markets. If you are planning to join the myriad of businesses competing for market shares, then it is important that you must be able to think strategically. Indeed, businesses should be able to incorporate strategic thinking into their sets of competencies if they want to survive the competition in the market and eventually rise as the market leader.

Without a doubt, being able to think strategically is a big advantage for firms or businesses to survive competitive markets. Even firms and businesses in less competitive markets are not excused from thinking strategically. In fact, strategic thinking helps determine whether or not a firm or business will be able to survive the different market challenges and eventually emerge as a market leader.

In reality, strategic thinking is a prerequisite for developing a sustainable competitive advantage. Once sustainable competitive advantages are developed, they become the focal points of strategy. If you were to think deeper, you would realize that strategy and competitive advantages work hand in hand and in a cycle. This emphasizes the importance of being able to think strategically so that a firm or business can take steps that would bring them closer their vision, objectives, and goals.

We can view competitive advantage as a set of distinctive capabilities that competitors cannot replicate. However, having a set of distinctive capabilities is not enough. Firms or businesses must also be able to maintain and develop these sets of distinctive capabilities so they will not be lost over time. There are tangible and intangible distinctive capabilities. Tangible ones include exclusive licenses, intellectual property rights, and statutory monopolies. Intangible distinctive capabilities involve strong brands, tacit knowledge and skills, leadership, teamwork, business process, organizational culture, and partnerships.

Competitive advantage can also be viewed as a set of reproducible capabilities or those that can replicated by competitors. These include technical, financial, and marketing capabilities, non-exclusive licenses, and explicit knowledge.

These two kinds of competitive advantage should be synergized to create sustainable competitive advantage. A synergistic combination can only be achieved once a firm or business employs strategic thinking. Therefore, businesses and firms must be able to use strategic thinking to develop sustainable competitive advantage in terms of competencies and capabilities, dynamic strategy, customer focus, organization and processes, and innovation.