Fast Facts For Curious Minds

BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS

  • Difference Between Cost Leadership and Differentiation
    By Claire Garcia
    Both cost leadership and differentiation are two of the four Generic Strategies introduced by Michael E. Porter in his 1985 book “Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance,” alongside cost focus and differentiation focus. Porter emphasized the need to pursue a single ...
  • Advantages and Disadvantages of Differentiation
    By Claire Garcia
    Differentiation is one of the four Generic Strategies introduced by Michael E. Porter alongside cost leadership and the two specific focus strategies cost focus and differentiation focus. Strategic managers and markets also recognize it as one of the sources of competitive advantage that is ...
  • Differentiation Strategy: How To Differentiate From The Competition
    By Claire Garcia
    A differentiation strategy comprises all business-level decisions and initiatives aimed at developing and offering products that have qualities or unique selling propositions that differentiate them from equivalent products or substitutes from competitors. Michael E. Porter introduced ...
  • Difference Between Cost Focus and Differentiation Focus
    By Claire Garcia
    Cost focus and differentiation focus are two of the four Generic Strategies developed and introduced by Michael E. Porter in his 1985 strategic management book “Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance.” Note that Porter’s Generic Strategies collectively describes how ...
  • Cost Leadership Strategy: Definition, Dimensions, and Examples
    By Claire Garcia
    Cost leadership is a position in which a business organization or firm achieves cost-efficiency that enables it to present itself as the cheapest manufacturer or provider of a particular product in a specific industry or market, thereby giving it a competitive advantage. The concept was first ...
  • Threat of New Entrants: Impacts and Factors
    By Claire Garcia
    Michael E. Porter introduced the threat of new entrants as one of Porter’s Five Forces that shape the competitive environment in a particular industry or market and impact the profitability and longevity of a particular business or firm. The other forces are the threat of substitutes, the ...
  • Porter’s Generic Strategies: Explanations and Criticisms
    By Claire Garcia
    Michael E. Porter introduced the Generic Strategies in his 1985 book “Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance” to describe how businesses pursue and achieve competitive advantages while also providing strategists and analysts with insights on how to maximize profit ...
  • Factors Influencing the Intensity of Competitive Rivalry
    By Claire Garcia
    Michael E. Porter identified the intensity of competitive rivalry or the competition in a particular industry or market as one of the Five Forces that shape the competitive environment. Note that the other four forces are the threat of new entrants, the threat of substitutes, the bargaining power ...

HEALTH AND MEDICINE

  • Effectiveness of Topical Vitamin C in Skin Lightening: Studies
    By Suzanne Garcia
    Vitamin C is one of the popular ingredients used in the formulation of topical skincare products aimed at whitening or lightening the skin, especially in treating hyperpigmentation due to photodamage caused by exposure to ultraviolet radiation or in reducing dark spots caused by blemishes, ...
  • Vitamin C Serum: Benefits and Effectiveness
    By Suzanne Garcia
    A vitamin C serum is a skincare product based on a serum formulation and applied on the face or specific areas of the skin that provides high doses of topical ascorbic acid or its esters and precursors such as ascorbyl-6-palmitate or magnesium ascorbyl phosphate. Note that a serum is a specific ...
  • Purpose of Toner in Skin Care: The Basics
    By Suzanne Garcia
    Toners collectively represent a specific category of skincare products. As one of the mainstays in a typical daytime and nighttime skincare routine, a face toner is generally a no-rinse liquid-based cleanser used after washing the face. But what does it do? What are its uses and benefits? And how ...
  • Serum in Skin Care: Purpose, Benefits, and Effectiveness
    By Suzanne Garcia
    A “serum” or face serum is a specific category of skincare products topically applied on the face, usually after cleansing and before putting other face care products such as moisturizers or creams. Fundamentally, the word “serum” is a marketing term used to represent a particular class of leave-on ...
  • How UV Radiation Damages the Skin, Causes Cancer
    By Suzanne Garcia
    Ultraviolet or UV is a form of electromagnetic radiation and an electromagnetic wave that sits after the visible light and before x-rays in the electromagnetic spectrum. It has a wavelength that ranges from 10nm to 400nm and frequencies ranging from 30 PHz to 750 THz. Note that the spectrum ...
  • SPF 101: Understanding Sun Protection Factor
    By Suzanne Garcia
    The sun protection factor or SPF is a rating system used in sunscreen labeling to partially aid consumers in choosing the most suitable sunscreen product based on their use-case situations or specific intended application. The factor is based on a measure of the fraction of sunburn-causing ...
  • Titanium Dioxide vs. Zinc Oxide in Sunscreens
    By Suzanne Garcia
    Both titanium dioxide and zinc oxide are used in the formulation of a specific variant of sunscreens. More specifically, these two mineral compounds represent one of the two categories of sunscreen formulation: physical sunscreens. Note that chemical sunscreens are based on organic compounds that ...
  • Guide to Choosing a Sunscreen
    By Suzanne Garcia
    Sunscreen provides protection against the harmful effects of exposure to ultraviolet radiation. However, not all sunscreens are made the same. Some use different classes of active ingredients in their formulation. Others can provide broad-spectrum protection against both UVA and UVB rays. There are ...