Our marketing teacher is weirdly interesting. He talks a lot. He can talk for 30 minutes without break. He is an old man, but he is aware of the current business world. Maybe because of his big experience in business consulting, his words affect me, remaining in my memory, making me think deep about his lessons.

One thing that stuck in my mind from his last class is this sentence:

“COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE flows from value-chain activities.”

I know, it sounds complicated. So let me share with you my thoughts on this topic. Maybe I will manage to simplify it for you.

The central “heart” of any business is CUSTOMERS.

The more customers you have, the bigger is your business. The more loyal they are to you, the more they pay you [=more money]. Are you following me so far? Bear with me.

Any business has COMPETITORS in its respective industry that constantly fight with each other to “win” customers, right?

Now the best way [maybe the only way] your business wins a competition is that you have something UNIQUE that your competitors don’t have [that’s the reason why your customers choose you over your competitors]. It may be lower price, extraordinary product, or simply a great customer service. This is called “competitive advantage”.