What are a company's core competences? Is there a framework to define them?
What are a company's core competences?
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Core competencies are things a company is really good at.
For example, for Coca Cola it would be things like
- Marketing
- Advertising
- Making and selling Beverages
- Setting up a cold chain
- Distribution of goods across all geographies
- Building a retail network
- Etc.
It would not be the following that are required for it to be a global competitor in the beverages space
- Software development
- Fiancial modeling
- Providing consulting services
- Selling electronics
- Etc.
Best,
Udayan
(edited)
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Hello!
I would make hte following approach:
In my mind, think of the 5 Ps of Porter
Having those elements in mind, mention them, as well as moats and walls.
Furthermore, always see the vission and mission, gives many clues.
Hope it helps!
Cheers,
Clara
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Hi Richard,
Core competencies are anything that I do really well as a company. In particular, it would generally be things I'm especially known for, when being compared against my competition.
Defining them is totally industry/company/case specific! As you'll see in the below list, core competencies can literally be anything!
https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/15792-business-core-competencies.html
https://www.thebalancesmb.com/core-competency-in-business-2948314
https://www.shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/tools-and-samples/hr-qa/Pages/corecompetencies.aspx
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Basically what is a company really good at.
What has it been doing from Day 1? What is the cornerstone of its strategy? What is the one thing / function / ability it can't do without?
E.g. Uber/Doordash - best-in-class routing, dynamic pricing; Amazon - operational efficiencies in logistics; Google - search; Disney - franchises and merchandising across formats; McDonalds - process standardisation and consistency
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