Konkurenčná výhoda nízkych nákladov
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF LOW COSTS

Summary/Abstract: In the adaptation period most powerful lobbies reassert themselves. These then can implement their strategies. The enterprises must keep competitive advantages for the sake of their competitiveness. At the same time business partners should apprehend this competitive advantage. Michael A. Porter defines two basic types of competitive advantage – low cost advan-tage and differential advantage. Considering the past and current position of Slovak enterprises and global trends the pressure to reduce prices will be permanent. That opens the space to concentrate at the competitive advantage of low costs. The advantage of low costs will project itself into the over average profitability in the case when the company sells for prices nearing average prices of the compared product or service. The company, however, cannot ignore fundamentals of differentiation. Parity in differentiation enables the company with low costs to achieve high profit. Within the framework of co-operative links where Slovak companies attend, there is a great pressure concerning quality, price and delivery dates. Preservation and improvement of competitiveness stimulates new activities, which are for the moment compensated by low wages, controlled prices, undercharged currency rate and various import barriers. Enterprise management must understand the factors influencing costs in a way that will enable to discover and exploit sustainable advantage of low costs. Only then can the management formulate and enforce its own competition strategy. Complexity of this process lies in the fact that every merit creation process has its own cost structure. One must analyse relations inside as well as in the outside of the enterprise. It is important to pay more attention to the strategic questions of the costs rather than to the accuracy of their allocation. Primary source of the competitive advantage are differences among value chains of the rivals. The enterprise can get competitive advantage by implementing strategically important activities in a cheaper and better way compared to the rival. These are not the factors primarily listed on the cost side in the profit-and-loss statement, where one implicitly assumes mechanisms providing a certain optimum condition. The enterprise must identify its own resources of low cost advantage such as appropriate enterprise size, information received, capacity exploitation, institutional factors, mutual links, geographic position etc. Weak bargaining power of our enterprises manifests itself in the contracts for hired labour and in the low sale prices. Often is a period of such a policy necessary for the company to get a new experience and contacts. To achieve the advantage of low costs one should predict changes and respond efficiently to them. The enterprise enjoys an advantage of low costs when controlling cost factors or when changing the shape of value chain. Strategic value of low cost advantage depends on its sustainability. It will be su

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