The two major avenues for achieving a cost advantage over rivals include O revamping the firm's value chain to eliminate or bypass some cost-producing activities and doing a better job than rivals of performing value chain activities more cost-effectively adopting the lowest-cost production technology and introducing an ever-growing number of cost drivers into its value chain system. o paying lower wages and salaries than rivals and investing heavily in advanced technologies to perform most value chain activities o undertaking a long-term campaign to develop a distinctive competence in cost-cutting and offering all employees sizable bonuses for coming up with good ways to cut costs. o having the most cost-efficient production facilities and emphasizing low-cost approaches to distribution