Fall 2009 issue of Horizons

Chairman’s Corner

The RubinBrown Market Advantage By James G. Castellano, CPA

“Chance favors the prepared mind.” Louis Pasteur

The creation of sustainable competitive advantage is a common overarching strategy for successful enterprises. Yet achievement of such advantage often proves elusive. Those who have successfully achieved a market advantage often did so because of their unwavering commitment to the process of strategic planning. David Aaker, author of “Developing Business Strategies,” says that a sustainable competitive advantage has three characteristics — • The advantage involves a key success factor, • The advantage is substantial enough to really make a difference, and • It is sustainable in the face of environmental changes and competitor actions. At RubinBrown, we have been following this simple discipline for many years in our quest to secure a sustainable competitive advantage. Our clients have defined our key success factors for us. They include superior quality and service of course. But going beyond the surface to truly understand the client’s perspective of qualityandservice iscritical.Wehave learned that superior quality and service mean thorough understanding of the industries in which our clients operate, deep technical expertise, close personal attention and continuity of the teams serving our clients, among other things.

5 u fall 2009 issue