Time-based competition: Competitive advantage tool for A/E/C firms

With the ever-increasing competition in the architecture, engineering, and construction (A/E/C) industry, more and more A/E/C firms are considering new business strategies to gain a competitive market advantage, while still taking care of the needs and requirements of their customers. A new class of strategies, time-based competition (TBC) strategies, responds to the new competitive conditions of the market today, identifying time as the most critical variable in today’s competitive arena. Although these strategies have been extremely successful for an increasing number of firms in the industrial and service sector, A/E/C firms have not fully realized their strategic importance in gaining a competitive edge in the market. This paper describes some isolated examples of limited application of TBC in the A/E/C Industry, and introduces a conceptual framework for the implementation of TBC as a strategic tool for gaining a competitive advantage.