Session 2 -
Tool to Support Competitiveness – Which Tools? For Whom? To Do
What?
The Issue:
Identifying, building, exploiting and sustaining competitive
advantage is a process in which many stakeholders have their role to
play. To contribute, different groups of stakeholders need different
technical support and decision-making tools.
Tools exist to ensure pragmatic action at both the strategic and
operational levels of export development. They are in use in many
Southern African countries.
Yet,
their application is limited and often the investment is not made to
adapt them, and their use, to local conditions. Full advantage is,
therefore, not being taken of their potential contribution to the
design and implementation of national strategy.
The Proposition:
The globalizing economy requires systems thinking, worldviews and
approaches built on business sub-systems. Up-to-date information and
knowledge need to be accessed, assessed and applied.
A
key challenge confronting the strategy-maker is to assemble a
competitiveness tool kit that will:
·
support the identification and analysis of problems, including the
gathering of relevant information;
·
provide guidance for the synthesis of facts and principles to support
decision-making;
·
be
flexible enough to allow the application to evolving situations; and
·
maximize efficiency, usage and information exchange through the
application of information and communication technology.
Focus of debate:
What should the strategy-maker’s tool kit contain? Have practical
requirements for tools changed in light of globalizing markets and
the increasing importance of creating and exploiting competitive
advantage? What are the principal constraints in
Southern Africa
to the use of analytical and decision-support tools? And how can
these constraints be overcome?
