What is Competitive Agility

While there is consensus that sustainable competitive advantage is key for organisational survival, the source of such advantage has been attributed to a number of disparate areas. Some scholars have suggested that human and financial resources as well as Research and Development (R&D) activities improve organisations' competitiveness. Others have argued that firms need to focus on competitive agility and the speed with which they respond to their marketing environments. This chapter makes two controversial propositions. First, it postulates that much of what used to be sources of competitive advantage (e.g., stable employment environments, low turnover) can now in fact be what makes organisations stale and uncompetitive. Second, it puts forth a notion of competitive leapfrogging and argues that an important source of competitive advantage is the ability to bypass competition either by skipping the stages in the development paths of the forerunners or by taking significant leaps forward and embracing futuristic concepts.