Boston Consulting Group's Advantage Matrix

The matrix was published in a 1981 Perspective titled "Strategy in the 1980s" by Richard Lochridge.

In essence, the former category covers the approach described in the more popular growth-share matrix, while the latter represents the approach (described by Michael Porter) of differentiating products so that they do not compete head-on with their competitors.

"These two factors – the size of the advantage and the number of ways it can be achieved – can be combined into a simple matrix to help guide more creative strategy development.

--Richard Lochridge[2] The Boston Consulting Group described the size of advantage as a company's ability to gain economies of scale.

The number of approaches to achieving advantage is the company's ability to differentiate from their competitors.