Why are some companies more competitive than others?

Jérôme Barthélemy, Professor of Strategy and Management at ESSEC Business School and author of the book Libérer la Compétitivité (Pearson, 2016), shares the 3 key factors corporate competitiveness and challnges you to a quiz

For many years, business schools throughout the world have invested in management research. This strategy has materialized in the shape of the publication of a considerable number of academic works. Despite these efforts, companies have little knowledge of it.

Whereas it remains confidential, management research is full of insights that the business world could benefit from. These “nuggets” provide useful, practical answers to the tangible concerns of many companies. Better still, they bring into question many of the preconceived ideas circulating among business practice. They thereby enable companies that know them to significantly improve their competitiveness.

So why are some companies more competitive than others?

For Jérôme Barthélemy, Professor of Strategy and Management at ESSEC Business School and author of the book Libérer la Compétitivité (Pearson, 2016), the answer lies in 3 key areas:

Making real strategic choices – to meet with success a company must make strategic choices that distinguish it from its competitors,
Making fewer avoidable mistakes – a company can easily improve its competitiveness by making fewer avoidable mistakes than its competitors. And finally,
Changing mindsets – companies won’t make real strategic choices and won’t commit fewer avoidable mistakes without a change in mindset.

In this context, Jérôme Barthélémy throws out a challenge to ESSEC Knowledge readers:

Try to answer a 7-question online challenge focusing on why some companies perform better than others.
Compare your answers with detailed feedback from Jerome Barthelemy, the author of Libérer la Compétitivité.