Identify And Use ‘Core’ Competencies

The enterprise that has the capacity to quickly and effectively match its distinctive competencies with emerging opportunity enjoys a powerful competitive edge.

In our last article we discussed the importance of using “pathfinders” as well as planners in the process of forging a company’s strategic direction. Since predictable events can, by definition, be predicted by everybody, the only true competitive advantage available to a company is derived from its ability to find opportunities first and exploit them the fastest.

As my ol’ uncle Ollie used to say, “good luck happens when opportunity meets preparedness.” He also had a keen appreciation for timing, and believed “if you can see the bandwagon, you’re too late.”

Every organization has a one-of-a-kind “fingerprint” of competencies, a performance profile that makes it unique with a potential unlike that of any other enterprise. “Core competencies” are really the “heartbeat,” the personality, the very nature of an enterprise.

But, it takes continuous informed observation and careful analysis to find these competencies. A firm’s leaders have to dig diligently and deeply to find the especial capabilities that distinguish it from its competitors and give it an unmatched advantage.

A company’s distinctive competencies allow it to endure and prosper under radically different and rapidly changing scenarios. They are the fundamental strengths that have fueled it growth throughout its history.

These competencies are established over time and are typically well-defined and delineated. They are, however, amenable, with effort and patience, to enhancement, expansion and improvement.

An enterprise can enjoy one or more distinctive competencies, including such things as: design and process know-how; ability to access critical resources; structural adaptability and flexibility; technical competence; marketing prowess; service/support capacity; leadership/followership abilities; capacity to posture effectively in the market; ability to build and exploit a solid reputation; and, a knack for effectively sharing knowledge among its workers.

A good example of comparative approaches to building and using organizational competencies can be found in the cases of General Electric and Westinghouse. George Westinghouse was a prolific, visionary inventor. He focused on creating unique products like the AC power system and the railroad airbrake, and he built his company’s entire culture around its products.

In comparison, General Electric’s first president, Charles Coffin, never invented a product. He focused on creating an organization. He established the research labs and operating systems that would endure. He created an organizational culture.

Westinghouse focused on the creation of a product, which left the fate of his company to where that product evolution would take him. Coffin’s creation was the General Electric company and what its carefully nurtured capacities would allow it to do. Arguably, the differing fortunes of these two companies in recent years has reflected the wisdom of the GE approach.

In addition to gaining a sound appreciation of a firm’s competencies, its pathfinders must attempt to find and forecast the fruitful circumstances, the “exploitable” opportunities, in which these capacities can be applied. While all people experience change, fewer can explain it, and far fewer can predict it.

But it is change that produces opportunities for superior, unmatched results. Therefore, it is important for organizational leaders to be able to productively speculate about the possible and probable courses of future change, and to master their firm’s distinctive competencies to take advantage of them.

In order to anticipate change with reasonable accuracy, trends must be extrapolated, events hypothesized, “what if?” scenarios postulated. Such forecasting is essential if a pathfinder is to anticipate the opportunities that can be matched with his institution’s distinctive competencies.

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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Paul Willax The Spokesman-Review