Strategic competitiveness is achieved when a company successfully formulates and implements a value-creating strategy. By implementing a value-creating strategy that current and potential competitors are not simultaneously implementing and that competitors are unable to duplicate, a company achieves a sustained or sustainable competitive advantage.

So long as a company can sustain (or maintain) a competitive advantage, investors will earn above-average returns. Above average returns represent returns that exceed returns that
investors expect to earn from other investments with similar levels of risk (investor uncertainty about the economic gains or losses that will result from a particular investment). In other words, above average-returns exceed investors’ expected levels of return for given levels of risk.

In the long run, companies must earn at least average returns and provide investors with average returns if they are to survive. If a company earns below average returns and provides
investors with below-average returns, investors will withdraw their funds and place them in investments that earn at least average returns. Internationally these types of companies are
prime take over targets, a concept that is picking up in India.

A framework that can assist companies in their quest for strategic competitiveness is the strategic management process, the full set of commitments, decisions and actions required for a company to systematically achieve strategic competitiveness and earn above-average returns.