Closing the Competition Gap in Enterprise

The article presents relationships between the nature of competition gap in enterprise and the contents of programmes devised to bridge that gap, and describes concepts and methods used in such endeavours. Closing the competition gap starts with its identification, measurement, analysis and evaluation from the point of view of its source, its scope and the nature of threat posed to the existence of an organisation. The next stage involves drawing up a remedial programme. Depending on the kind and scale of deficiencies in the enterprise potential or strategy, such a programme may assume a form of a strategic, operational or mixed tur, or a form of step-by-step evolutional and partial adjustments. The process of elimination of the competition gap, especially a complex and critical one, consists of two stages: a rescue stage (shortening of the front, potential decomposition) and a repair stage (stabilisation within the new domain and potential, build-up and consolidation of competitive advantages. At the rescue stage, the concepts of traditional restructuring and reengineering, lean management and outsourcing may prove useful. At the repair stage, the proposals presented by Total Quality Management proponents or by theoreticians describing the rules and functioning of learning organisations may be of practical relevance. In the process of drawing up programmes to bridge the competition gap the concept of benchmarking may be used, and plementation of those programmes should comply with the change management principles and theories