For each of the following companies, assess the sustainability of its competitive advantage.
a. Analog Devices, which develops specialized applications for analog semiconductors, has invested countercyclically to cash in on business upturns. The results: 80% faster growth and 50% higher profitability than the rest of the semiconductor industry.
b. Nike’s leadership in athletic shoes is built on cheap far eastern labor and massive investments in product development and marketing. Over the five years between 1981 and 1986, Nike averaged three times the profitability and four times the growth of the rest of the U.S. shoe industry
c. Lincolin electric has been the leader in the electric welding industry ever since john Lincoln invented the portable arc welder in 1895. since then, technological change has been incremental. Lincoln has integrated backward, customizing its production machinery and holding annual worker turnover to under 3%. It has grown more rapidly than its competitors, partly by sharing its cost reductions with customers
d. Dupont is a leading producer of titanium dioxide, largely thanks to a production process based on low cost feedstock that gives it a 20% cost advantage over competitors processes. Mastering the cheaper feedstock technology can be accomplished only by investing $ 50 million to $ 100 million and several years of testing time in an efficiently scaled plant.
e. Tandem computer pioneered fault-tolerant computers for processing transactions. Although the cost of adding processing capability once a system is up and running is relatively low, customers must first make sizable and irrecoverable system-specific up front investments in software and training.