by Barbara Ohlsson, Senior BI business analyst at PBT Group

Michael Porter* describes competitive advantage as follows: “Competitive advantage grows out of value a firm is able to create for its buyers that exceeds the firm's cost of creating it. Value is what buyers are willing to pay, and superior value stems from offering lower prices than competitors for equivalent benefits or providing unique benefits that more than offset a higher price.”

February 8, 2012
The last year has seen a rise in the uptake and infiltration of social networks, blogs, microblogs and forums amongst businesses. In fact, a global survey conducted by Regus* revealed that

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bt David Logan, Principal consultant, PBT Group -iTWeb

The Pareto principle is named after Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto, who observed in 1906 that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. Hence, it is more commonly known as the 80/20 rule, where for many events, 80% of the effects are a result of 20% of the causes.

by Jessie Rudd, PBT Group, January 2012

“More information will be created in the year 2009 than in all recorded history up until that year” (sourced at www.jsgilbert.com).Anyone with an opinion, a java enabled cell phone or a computer can and will air that opinion on any one of a million or more social media sites. Access is relatively cheap and easy. There are no qualifications required and things like literacy, intelligence, objectivity have no bearing on what is said by the masses. A thought, idea, joke, whether benign or malignant, can go viral in a matter of minutes. Careers have been made. Reputations ruined. Corruption has been exposed. Governments have fallen. Small town local businesses suddenly cater to an international audience. Companies have been born and others destroyed.In an age of information overload, the consumer has truly become king on an unprecedented scale. They are taking to the internet to air their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with everything from government to product to service delivery – often in overwhelmingly huge numbers.Any company concerned with ‘brand opinion’ simply cannot afford to ignore this font of endlessly changing and churning information.