ESSAY QUESTION:
"As technological development continues to intensify business competition, the quality of customer service is likely to become the only sustainable source of competitive advantage."
Explain what you think this quotation means and discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with it. Develop your position with reasons and/or specific examples drawn from history, current events, or your own experience, observations, or reading.
YOUR RESPONSE:
The author in the argument above makes two seperate statements. She argues that technological development intensifies business competition and that customer service may become the only sustainable source of competitive advantage. While I agree with the first statement, I oppose the second.
I agree with the first statement, that technological development intensifies business competition. There are two major aspects which support this statement.
Firstly, modern communication and the increasing social flexibility of people lead to global competition for many resources. For example, businesses may compete over capital, with which they can fund projects, on the New York Stock Exchange, the most globalized stock exchange where investors from all over the world trade. It is also the case that employers or business school search for prospective applicants in all parts of the world.
Secondly, due to changing attitudes, better communication and changes in the judical system, rights and patterns, important sources of competitive advantage, change hands more quickly and are copied more and more. Therefore, business may have this advantage only for a reduced time.
Because of technology, namely modern communication, business competition has intensified over the last years and will continue to do so in the future.
However, I do not agree with the second statement, that customer service may become the only sustainable source of competitive advantage. Even though customer service is an important factor, I believe that other factors are more important to the competitiveness of a business.
For example, the location of a business can be a competitive advantage. In the service sector proximity to customers is very important. Since the service sector contributes more than 50% to the economy in most industrialized countries, location is likely to be a more important competitive factor than customer service.
Additionally, there are many successful companies which are not especially good in customer service but still very successful. For example, low cost airlines, such as Ryanair in Europe, are often critized for having horrible customer service. However, they continue to grow and realize better margins than their traditional, customer friendly, competitors.
To summarize, I agree with the author on the statement that technological development intensified competition in the business world. Especially modern communication has affected and will continue to affect business competition all over the world. However, I do not agree with the statement that customer service is likely to become the only source of competitive advantage. There are more important factors to a business model, for example location, and business can succeed even though they have bad customer service.
"As technological development continues to intensify business competition, the quality of customer service is likely to become the only sustainable source of competitive advantage."
Explain what you think this quotation means and discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with it. Develop your position with reasons and/or specific examples drawn from history, current events, or your own experience, observations, or reading.
YOUR RESPONSE:
The author in the argument above makes two seperate statements. She argues that technological development intensifies business competition and that customer service may become the only sustainable source of competitive advantage. While I agree with the first statement, I oppose the second.
I agree with the first statement, that technological development intensifies business competition. There are two major aspects which support this statement.
Firstly, modern communication and the increasing social flexibility of people lead to global competition for many resources. For example, businesses may compete over capital, with which they can fund projects, on the New York Stock Exchange, the most globalized stock exchange where investors from all over the world trade. It is also the case that employers or business school search for prospective applicants in all parts of the world.
Secondly, due to changing attitudes, better communication and changes in the judical system, rights and patterns, important sources of competitive advantage, change hands more quickly and are copied more and more. Therefore, business may have this advantage only for a reduced time.
Because of technology, namely modern communication, business competition has intensified over the last years and will continue to do so in the future.
However, I do not agree with the second statement, that customer service may become the only sustainable source of competitive advantage. Even though customer service is an important factor, I believe that other factors are more important to the competitiveness of a business.
For example, the location of a business can be a competitive advantage. In the service sector proximity to customers is very important. Since the service sector contributes more than 50% to the economy in most industrialized countries, location is likely to be a more important competitive factor than customer service.
Additionally, there are many successful companies which are not especially good in customer service but still very successful. For example, low cost airlines, such as Ryanair in Europe, are often critized for having horrible customer service. However, they continue to grow and realize better margins than their traditional, customer friendly, competitors.
To summarize, I agree with the author on the statement that technological development intensified competition in the business world. Especially modern communication has affected and will continue to affect business competition all over the world. However, I do not agree with the statement that customer service is likely to become the only source of competitive advantage. There are more important factors to a business model, for example location, and business can succeed even though they have bad customer service.
