A competitive strategy is a statement that identifies a business’s approach to compete, its goals, and the plans and policies that will be required to carry out those goals.

A strategy, in general, can apply to a desired outcome, such as gaining market share.

A competitive strategy focuses on achieving a desired outcome when competitors want to prevent you from reaching your goal. Therefore, when you create a competitive strategy, you must plan your own moves, but you must also anticipate and counter your competitors’ moves.

Through its competitive strategy, an organization seeks a competitive advantage in an industry. That is, it seeks to outperform its competitors in a critical measure such as cost, quality, and time-to-market.

Competitive advantage helps a company function profitably with a market and generate larger-than-average profits.

Competitive advantage is increasingly important in today’s business environment, as you will note throughout the text. In general, the core business of companies has remained the same. That is, information technologies simply offer tools that can enhance an organization’s success through its traditional sources of competitive advantage, such as low cost, excellent customer service, and superior supply chain management.

Strategic information systems (SISs) provide a competitive advantage by helping an organization implement its strategic goals and improve its performance and productivity.

Any information system that helps an organization either achieve a competitive advantage or reduce a competitive disadvantage, qualifies as a strategic information system.