Abstract
Firms continually seek a competitive advantage in their markets in order to generate the cash necessary to survive. Our assumption is that firms do so by strongly aligning their strategic focus with their core assets. Like other management advice, this is easier said than done. In this paper we are looking to determine how firms align their strategic focus and core assets. We have found that firms that do sustain a competitive advantage are tightly aligned. On the other hand, firms that are loosely aligned are the ones that struggle the most and are generally without the means to overcome that struggle.