A competitive advantage specifies how an organization offers unique customer value. A company has to have answers to these questions to have a competitive advantage and succeed in business, and it has to sustain the advantage against competitors. Two aspects of a company’s competitive advantage are core competency and benchmarking. A core competency is what a firm does well.

Benchmarking is the process of comparing an organization’s products or services and processes with those of other companies. In benchmarking, you try to find out about other products and processes,, and copy them or improve upon them. After managers have evaluated the organization and the competition by completing the situation analysis, they should go back and review the mission and its vision to see if they need to be changed. It tells what is going on in the external environment that may require change to improve value.