Operations: Ingredients
Operations: Packaging
Operations: Manufacturing
Outbound Logistics
Marketing: Advertising
Marketing: Promotions
Profit

This Interactive Illustration compares the relative average costs of each activity that Collins Kitchen and three competitors pay to manufacture, distribute, and sell a typical package of snack cakes, and it shows the percentage of costs that these activities contribute to total costs.

Source: Adapted from Pankaj Ghemawat and Jan W. Rivkin, "Creating Competitive Advantage," HBS No. 798 062, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School 1998.
Copyright © 1998 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Reprinted by permission.