Competitive Advantage in Bat

The second largest tobacco producers in the world, British American Tobacco (hereinafter called the BAT), is a British multinational tobacco company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, it is also a primary listing company on the London Stock Exchange, and ranked as 6th out of the 100 companies in the FTSE 100 Index, as at 30 November 2012. Being the second largest in the industry, BAT has over 200 brands which are selling in an approximate of 180 markets around the world. In 2011, according to the company’s financial annual report, they have a sales volume of more than 700 billion cigarettes and generated a large sum of revenue of £15,399 million and this was achieved by its leadership position in more than 50 markets worldwide. The company is proud of themselves for being a part of the world’s top 12 companies by market capitalization for almost a century since 1912, based on report shown, BAT has a market capitalization of £65.6 billion, one of the six largest companies listed on London Stock Exchange.

Sustainable business practice is a main focus in BAT, according to its Chief Executive, Nicandro Durante, and to maintain its leadership in the global tobacco industry, the company emphasizes on quantity as well as quality of the business. To achieve a higher growth in the business, the company tends to focus on the their Global Drive Brands through the increment of global market share. The company believes that with a great productivity and by being a responsible and winning organization, they are able to shift the company to a higher level and thus offer their valued shareholders a higher returns, as well as creating the best interest for the stakeholders. This essay will discuss on the topic of resources and capabilities of BAT and how these competences have successfully helped the company to sustain its competitive advantage.

Resource-based view of the company
Over the past decades, there is an obvious revitalization of interest on how a firm’s