Prahalad and Hamel’s Core Competencies Analysis
The world learned the importance and application of “core competence” in the year 1990 through the research article of CK Prahalad and Gary Hamel. The article was published in May-June 1990 issue of Harvard Business Review. This was followed by a huge support from academicians and industry experts. These days, management students learn different aspects of core competency including its application in different industries. In fact, some employers want the budding management professionals to be expert in recognizing and implementing core competency in their organizations. Keeping this increasing demand of core competency in business, we have developed an expert team of Core Competency assignment writing help where the students can get help in writing on the subject as well as analyze it using Prahalad and Hamel’s Core Competencies Analysis.
What is Core Competence?
Every organization has some strong aspects for which it is existing in the market. Some organizations recognize those aspects and some could not. They go on working and competing in the market knowing very little about their strength. The aim of core competence is to find out those capabilities. Prahalad and Hamel researched those abilities abbreviating them as the core competencies of an organization. They showed how the core competencies could be used for the overall benefits of an organization.
The abilities when properly taken care of help the organization to stay stronger and highly competitive in the market. They help in growing with time and assimilate into the present market competition easily. According to the authors, every organization needs to nurture those core competencies with the optimum use of available resources.
Core Competence Theory
The core competency theory is meant to develop a strategy that provides ways and means for the organizations to achieve coveted competitive advantage in the market. The theory opines that the organizations must focus on their strengths in a systematic manner and also on those functional areas in which they have capabilities. At the same time, Core Competence theory describes what constitutes a core competency and what should the organization do to make it unique in the market. It narrates the ways the core competence can be made inimitable.
The core competence can be such that it can be used any number of times across the markets. The ultimate goal of developing core competencies is to benefit the end-users. So, the organizations must develop their strategies to recognize the core competencies. The theory says that the core competency is the base on which the company should develop its strategies to add value in every vital aspect of the organization with an aim to gain a competitive advantage in the market.
According to the authors, “Management should ask: How long could we preserve our competitiveness if we did not control this core competence? How central is this core competence to customer benefits? What opportunities would be foreclosed if we lost this competence?” (Prahalad & Hamel, 1990).
Strategy and Core Competencies
The theory of core competence provides a basis for the organizations to participate and accomplish workable competitive advantage in the market. Through the theory, Prahalad and Hamel established the idea and developed the basis for the business establishments to follow in practice.
There is no precise aspect in core competencies. However, in the present context, some core competencies that the organizations might include are automation, technical aspects of customer relation, and process management, the utility of the product, etc. This is to say each organization has one or more specific areas in which they are stronger than the nearest competitors in the market. Now, these aspects of excellence can be used in other markets and products as well for gaining a competitive advantage in that market and finally, these can be the strength of the organization with a capability to add value the consumers.
Through the concept of core competence, the authors want to advise the companies to nurture their strengths and develop business abilities rather than on the weaker areas. The resources must be used on the stronger aspects to make them more imposing and useful.
How Do Core Competencies Work?
According to the authors, following steps are necessary for making the core competencies workable:
- It is necessary to isolate the key abilities.
- The management needs to compare those abilities with the most competitive organization in the same market to mark its strength and weakness.
- The management should recognize the capabilities that their customers value and make them their strength.
- Then the organization needs to have a business strategy that would draw an organizational roadmap for the proper use of the competencies and leverage on them.
- The management should have a clear strategy in preserving and nurturing those core competencies and expand it in the new markets.
Our motto is to make the best use of Prahalad and Hamel’s Core Competencies Analysis in the assignments on core competencies and make the assignment writing task easy for the students.