A competitive position refers to the position a firm occupies or is aiming to occupy relative to the competition that exists in the market. Michael Porter designed a model consisting of five forces that a firm should use to gauge its competitive strength in a given industry. These forces includethreat of new entrants into the industry, the bargaining power of suppliers, the threat of substitute products or services, the bargaining power of customers and the jockeying for position among current or rivalry among existing firms. Porter advocates that a firm should use the results from the industry analysis to formulate a competitive strategy. There are three generic strategies that a firm can adopt. They include differentiation, focus and cost leadership. According to Porter, a firm should use only one of the three generic strategies. Due to the ever changing market dynamics attributable to a number of factors, a firm may be subjected to change its competitive strategy once in a while. However, Porter warns against changing an organization’s competitive positioning more than once in five years (Gamble, Thompson & Strickland, 149).

Implementing a competitive strategy and incorporating it into an organization takes time. It is also quite costly. The employees will have to adjust to a new culture when a company decides to change its brand or how they differentiate their products in the market. The adaptation might have to involve training, and the process will eventually cost the organization. It also takes time for an organization fully to adjust to its newly formulated competitive positioning and strategy. It will, therefore, not be economically viable for a company to keep changing its competitive positioning in the market more than once in four or five years (Gamble, Thompson & Strickland, 152).

Another reason for maintaining a given competitive strategy is that there are various stakeholders in the organizations who might have invested in the organization based on the current competitive positioning it had taken. The shareholders analysis of the market might have projected a given return on investment on a long-term basis. The effects that might accrue due to changing the competitive positioning of a company might not be favorable to an investor’s initial desires and expectations. The employees working in the organization probably have long term plans on their employment in the firm. When the organization they are working for decides to change the production process that is not within the expertise of the employees, there might be a high rate of turnover (Gamble, Thompson & Strickland, 161).

Most of the time, changing the competitive positioning of the organization would mean changing the organization’s goals. The mission and vision statements will have to be adjusted to suit the new direction the company has taken. Michael Porter uses a model for the generic strategies to describe that changing the organization’s objective very often or using more than one competitive strategy at the same time would lead the company to get “stuck in the middle” (Gamble, Thompson & Strickland, 163).

The customers also have certain expectations based on how an organization has branded itself and the competitive position it has taken in the market. For example, when an organization decides to be a cost leader, customers will always expect to get quality products for a relatively cheaper price. When a company keeps on changing its competitive positioning, customers might lose track in the process and will slowly detach based on confusion on how to relate to the company. The constant changes also diminish the time value that the organization has created with its customers (Gamble, Thompson & Strickland, 163).

There are emerging issues that have criticised Porter’s advice as far as the frequency of changing an organization’s competitive position is concerned. The generic strategies have been criticized for lacking specificity, flexibility and it is also limiting. There are a number of reasons why many managers are obliged to change competitive positioning more than once within five years (Gamble, Thompson & Strickland, 165).

Currently, the rate of change in consumer preferences tends to be very high because of the stiff competition that exists in various industries. Organizations need to continuously change their strategies in order to fit their customer’s preferences. Failure to do so, the customers might easily switch to a competitive and adjusting after five years might be too late(Gamble, Thompson & Strickland, 167).

There are also a lot of challenges from competitors. Technological advances have ensured that no competitive advantage lasts very long. As soon an organization establishes a competitive advantage, and the competitors will work towards challenging the organization’s position in the market. Competitors will always look into new marketing strategies, technological improvements and new niches in the market as a way of undermining each other’s competitive position (Gamble, Thompson & Strickland, 167).

Internal organization change such as change in management or ownership may require an immediate need to change the organizations competitive positioning. A change in management at times comes with change in objectives of the organization (Gamble, Thompson & Strickland, 170).

In conclusion, Porter advocates that it is proper that an organization sticks to a particular competitive position for at least five years. However, the business world is changing faster than ever and critics have given a number of reasons that justifies organizations changing their competitive position more than once within five years.

Works Cited

Gamble Arthur, Thompson Junior & Strickland John E. Crafting and executing strategy : the        quest for competitive advantage : concepts and cases (17th ed. ed.). Boston: McGraw-         Hill/Irwin. (2010):p. 149-172.