Tallest Tower

1. Tallest Tower Neubaum Wears Glossy Lip Balm 2:00

2. Competitive Advantage • There is a true competitive advantage to being the last teams to build the tower. • Chance to see the materials • Chance to build a strategy with team members • Chance to see what works and what doesn’t • We had to ability to maneuver around our competitors mistakes and weaknesses • Though it is important to be the first to build a strategy to maintain a competitive advantage, by being a fast-follower allowed for more success.

3. Differentiation • The product differentiation by group was different on many levels: • One group broke the building process into manageable departments, allowing for the production to take several steps. • One group performed the tasks faster and with less quality and pieces • Two groups worked much like a vertically integrated company were all the pieces and structures were built at the same time by the same people and were compiled into the final product. • The way each team worked together demonstrates the different ways to be competitively aggressive.

4. Benchmarking • By watching other teams construct their towers, the other groups had the ability to analyze which strategies worked and which ones didn’t • We were able to devise a building strategy from watching our competitors, and we were able to perform the “best practices” to operate efficiently and with better quality.

5. Logistics Management • It is important to plan, implement, and control the efficiency and cost of the supply chain. • Companies must maintain communications between the different departments that assemble the final product. • Even though we had a plan/strategy mapped out, when it came to building our tower, our communication failed along the away. • To be more efficient, it would have been helpful to have one person as a project manager, to verify that our strategy was followed and that all pieces were constructed in order.

6. Differentiation • Tallest Tower based on differentiation • First team used items they believed to give them a competitive advantage in the competition • However, since their techniques were easily copied, their advantage was not sustainable • Therefore, firms must create sustainable competitive advantages over competitors

7. Strategic Alliance Cont. • Tallest tower activity formed a strategic alliance with professor • Outsourcing • The activity allowed the professor to outsource part of the presentation to students • Therefore, the professor could focus on more critical activities (like posting study guides!) • Professor outsourced to reduce costs (in this case time) so students could learn from the activity