Core Competency Development
A core competency is a specific factor that a business sees as being central to the way it works or the way its employees work.
A core competency can take various forms, including technical/subject matter know-how, a reliable process and/or close relationships with customers and suppliers. It may also include product development or culture, such as employee dedication, best Human Resource Management (HRM), good market coverage etc.
Core competencies are particular strengths relative to other organizations in the industry which provide the fundamental basis for the provision of added value. Core competencies are the collective learning in organizations, and involve how to coordinate diverse production skills and integrate multiple streams of technologies. It is communication, an involvement and a deep commitment to working across organizational boundaries.
Many (most) core competencies provide a basis for competitive advantage.
For an example of core competencies, when studying Walt Disney World – Parks and Resorts, there are three main core competencies:
- Animatronics and Show Design
- Storytelling, Story Creation and Themed Atmospheric Attractions
- Efficient operation of theme parks
* The value chain is a systematic approach to examining the development of competitive advantage. It was created by M. E. Porter in his book, Competitive Advantage (1980). The chain consists of a series of activities that create and build value.
One of the ways that you need to see your business Is that you are in the business of creating and building core competencies on an ongoing and never ending basis.
Partial List of Core Competencies:
- Best in Class Quality Control
- Best in Class Customer Service
- Technological knowhow and skills
- Systematic development of innovation
- Best in Class Research and Development
- Best in Class Training
- Being in the category of Best Places to Work
- Designing Flawless Systems and Structure for the business (this is huge … a flawed system or bad structure results in all kinds of fire fighting)
- High Quality Management
- Production Efficiency
- Low Cost Producer
- Plan to Enhance and Develop great Teamwork
- Everyone takes Responsibility
- Good Decision Making
- Effective Communication
- Great Leadership
- Trustworthiness & Ethics
- Results orientation
- Effective Problem Solving through root cause analysis
- Keeping the Sales Funnel Full
- Digital Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Developing High Quality Prospects to Sell that fall into the category of your “Ideal Customer”
- Systematic and Best in Class Sales Training
- Sales Conversion Systems
- System for Developing and Nurturing Strategic Relationships of all kinds
- System for Partnering with our Vendors and Customers
- Having the appropriate amount of Production Capacity to handle growth (people, equipment, facilities and core competencies)
- Always having enough Working Capital to handle Current Operations and Growth
- Access to new Capital
- Effectively Scaling of the Business (growing the business smoothly with no upset conditions)
- Scorekeeping Systems (if you are not keeping score on everything, then all aspects of the business will eventually reduce down to the lowest acceptable level of performance)
- On-boarding System for New Employees
- Team Development Systems
- Methodology for hiring very High Quality New People that match our needs and our culture
- Never Ending Continuous Improvement
- Methodology for helping Toxic Employees to find a new place to work
- Methodology for Eliminating (firing) Toxic and Unruly Customers
- Management Dashboards
- Ways of defining and updating Critical Success Factors
- Risk Management methodologies
- Methodologies for Engaging, Motivating and Appreciating Team Members
- Timely Replacement of Obsolete Assets
- Effective Succession Planning
- Good Working Conditions
- Providing Outcomes for our Customers that Provides Them Competitive Advantage or Serves our Customer’s Customer or Decreases Cycle Times for our Customer.
- Developing a company culture that aligns with your core values and results in fulfilled, happy team members.
If you had all of the above Core Competencies … Do you think you would have significant competitive advantage in the marketplace? … of course the answer is yes, and by the way, you would dominate the marketplace … you would be turning away business and only taking the most profitable work. Your net profit would go up by a factor of 2 – 10X.
YOU WILL HAVE A MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH IF YOU GET THIS ONE THING:
Problems are almost always preventable if the appropriate Core Competency is in place. Conversely, if you ever have a problem, ask yourself the question … What lack of Core Competency caused this problem.
… Then go develop those Core Competencies, and your firefighting will eventually be reduced by 75 – 90% … AND …
YOU’LL ENJOY THE FOLLOWING MAJOR BENEFITS:
- You can now scale without the wheels falling off!!!! That’s right … this is the key to a future filled with opportunity and growth and devoid of hassles, heartache and hardship.
- You’ll get your life back.
- If your people are fighting fires half the time, and you remove that from your company …. then you will release an unbelievable amount of production capacity of your people. In some cases, you will be able to grow without adding people or surely with fewer added resources.
- Your people will be MUCH happier. Fighting fires kills people … they end up HATING their job, getting burned out and then they leave. Smooth sailing causes people to LOVE their job … happy employees means much lower turnover and better productivity.
- Your net profit margin will soar because you can deliver the same amount of products or services with fewer resources. One of our members went from a net profit of 1% to a net profit of 10% … a 10x improvement. Many other Brain Trust Members have doubled and tripled their profit from this main concept.
- Problem free delivery of products or services result in customers who will love you to death because their life is now much better now that you are delivering problem free products and services.
- High quality, problem free products, delivery and service (the “Customer Experience”) will become your major competitive advantage as your competitors continue to do what you used to do.
- The word will get out about this, and you will acquire new business just because customers love doing business with you.