When rivals can readily duplicate the successful features of a company's strategy (making it difficult or impossible to outstrategize rivals and beat them in the marketplace with a superior strategy), the only dependable path to sustainable competitive advantage over its rivals is to -develop a superior capability to execute strategy by building a competitively valuable Collection of resources, competences, and capabilities that enables the company to (1) perform certain important value chain activities at lower cost than rivals or (2) perform value chain activities with greater effective s than rivals such that the company gains the ability to deliver a better differentiated product and/or greater value to customers.