When the company's skills, resources, and controls are used to gain a value and/or cost advantage, the positional advantage leads to favorable performance outcomes (customer satisfaction, brand loyalty, market share and profitability), as shown in Exhibit 2-3. Competitive advantage is a moving target, so management must use a portion of profits to sustain advantage.

For example, high, v successful Tootsie Roll Industries annually uses a substantial portion of profits to unproved production operations and reduce the cost of producing its popular candy products.