Over time contract manufacturers serving Dell Technologies' rivals found ways to improve manufacturing efficiency, a key component of Dell's value chain. As a result, Dell no longer has a

significant price advantage over its rivals. This ilfustrates

the importance of continually assessing a firm's strategic position among changing market conditions

the importance of adopting packaged third$-$party software to imitate rivals value chains

the fact that scale advantages of an established firm are a huge factor in discouraging newer entrants to a market

the fact that resource$-$based thinking can help firms avoid the trap of carelessly entering markets simply because growth is spotted

the importance of using customer relationship management to support sales and marketing