You are the founder of Shadow Skateboards, and you are considering methods of gaining and sustaining a competitive advantage. Which of the following changes has the best chance of quickly creating a sustainable advantage?

A. devoting significant resources to researching and developing new products that will bemore durable than competitors'
B. automating the manufacturing process to reduce production costs
C. allowing customers to upload their own image designs and help assemble the finishedproduct at retail locations
D. switching to a just-in-time inventory system to reduce inventory costs

Verizon communications, inc., provides the following footnote relating to its leasing activities in its 10-k report. the aggregate minimum rental commitments under noncancelable leases for the periods shown at december 31, 2010, are as follows: years (dollars in millions) capital leases operatingleases 2011 $97 $1,898 2012 74 1,720 2013 70 1,471 2014 54 1,255 2015 42 1,012 thereafter 81 5,277 total minimum 418 $ 12,633 rental commitments less interest and (86) executory costs present value of 332 minimum lease payments less current (75) installments long-term obligation $257 at december 31, 2010 (a) confirm that verizon capitalized its capital leases using a rate of 7.4 %. (b) compute the present value of verizon's operating leases, assuming an 7.4% discount rate and rounding the remaining lease term to 3 decimal places. (use a financial calculator or excel to compute. do not round until your final answers. round each answer to the nearest whole number.)