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Meaning of Core Competencies
Core Competencies mean the strategic advantages possessed by a business enterprise over its competitors in the market. It simply refers to unique abilities, skills, and capabilities which enable business in developing competitive advantage over others in their industry and market. Brands use their core competencies for delivering superior value to their customers in form of differentiated products or services. The unique capabilities of a brand reside in their whole organizational system as well as in the collective knowledge of their people which influence the way in which the employees interact. Core competencies of the brand are not fixed and do not remain rigid. They are flexible which gets adjusted in accordance with the changes in the environment.
The core competencies, in addition to earning completive advantage also enable firms in expanding to new markets and improve their chances of survival. Companies for the purpose of developing core competencies must first filter out their best capabilities. Once these are identified then they should be hone into organization strengths for deriving superior results. The core competencies universally meet the following three conditions: they offer consumer benefits, not easy to be replicated and can be leveraged widely to numerous goods and markets.
Benefits of Core Competencies
Sustainable competitive advantage
Every company operates among a large number of competitors and faces stiff competition in the market. It is the core competency possessed by the brand that enables it to survive under such conditions. The company develops a competitive advantage via its unique abilities for offering unique products and services to customers. For example, KFC and McDonald’s are both companies that face in direct competition with numerous local food outlets in the same industry. It is the core competency of these 2 firms which enables them to beat the competition. They offer delicious and hygienic food at an affordable price range with quite a fast service.
Benefits and value
Core competencies developed by brands enable them in adding value and provide various benefits. The companies by excelling in their abilities provide luxury and superior services to their clients. Customers are more delighted and attracted toward such brands thereby adding value to them. The taj hotel group enjoys their own benefits due to the established chain of customers. Whenever a new hotel is opened by them then customers are sure to flock in. This is because customers identify the benefits and values of core competency.
Wide usage
A core competency of the brand can be well applied to a large variety of products or services in market. A Honda company is known for superior quality car engines. The brand enjoys core competency in manufacturing of engines. This is why while planning cars it keeps car design or marketing mix on secondary level. Company knows that any car can be sold if right engine and good power are provided with it. People know about the superior quality of its engines and this way core competency of Honda can be applied to it wide variety of cars.
Difficult to imitate
The core competency offers a unique identity to organization which cannot be replicated by other players in industry. It is not possible to take away the competency of any company easily as it is developed over a long period of time. Apple brand is well known in market for the word innovation. It is because of numerous innovative products brought by brand like iPhone, MacBook, iPod and others.
Examples of Core Competencies
Nestle
Nestle always tries to set itself apart from the remaining players in the industry. It employs a distinguished strategy that provides it a competitive edge over others. Core products of Nestle exhibit exceptional quality in terms of both health and hygiene thereby contributing to the increased level of satisfaction to customers.
Google is one of the world’s largest companies whose core competencies comprise high-end software engineering and scalable hardware infrastructure. A thirst for innovation and fantastic office culture can also be treated into its core competency. In addition to this, some core products of Google such as indexing technology and mapping platform can also be regarded as its core competencies.
Honda
Honda is a well-known brand in the market producing different segments of cars. This brand has core competencies in the field of superior engines and powertrains. All these competencies have driven Honda brand into the world’s renowned automobile companies.
Dell
Dell is the largest corporation that manufactures, sells, and supports computer products and related components of the hardware. This brand is doing well in presence of numerous strong competitors in the market such as Apple, Toshiba, HP, and IBM. Selling superior quality products at low cost is the core competency of the Dell brand. And after-sale services, relationships with customers, marketing, relationship as well as the partnership with suppliers are also included in Dell’s core competencies.