3 - Resources & capabilities Flashcards
the analysis of resources and capabilities is as applicable to
not‐for‐profit organizations as it is to business enterprises
resources are
the productive assets owned by the firm
capabilities are
what the firm can do
Individual resources do not
confer competitive advantage; they must work together to create organizational capability.
Once we have identified the KSFs in an industry,
it is a short step to identifying the resources and capabilities needed to deliver those success factors.
To take a wider view of a firm’s resources it is helpful to identify three principal types of resource:
tangible, intangible and human resources.
Tangible resources are
financial resources and physical assets are identified and valued in the firm’s financial statements.
the primary goal of resource analysis is not to value a company’s assets but
to understand their potential for creating competitive advantage.
Once we have fuller information on a company’s tangible resources we explore how we can create additional value from them. This requires that we address two key questions:
- What opportunities exist for economizing on their use?
2. What are the possibilities for employing existing assets more profitably?
intangible resources are
more valuable than tangible resources.
Among the most important of the undervalued or unvalued intangible resources are
brand names.
Intellectual property are
patents, copyrights, trade secrets and trademarks
Human resources of the firm comprise
the expertise and effort offered by employees.
Many organizations have established assessment centres specifically for the purpose of
providing assessments of skills & attributes of employees, and increasingly appraisal criteria are based upon research into superior job performance
Competencies modelling
identifying the set of skills, content knowledge, attitudes and values associated with superior performance within a particular job category
Interest in emotional intelligence reflects
the recognition of the importance of interpersonal skills and emotional awareness
Organizational culture is
a firm resource of great strategic importance that is potentially very valuable
organizational capability definition
a firm’s capacity to deploy resources for a desired end result
distinctive competence is used to describe
those things that an organization does particularly well relative to competitors
Core competences are those that:
- make a disproportionate contribution to customer value, or to the efficiency with which that value is delivered; and
- provide a basis for entering new markets
functional analysis identifies
organizational capabilities in relation to each of the principal functional areas of the firm
value chain analysis…
separates the activities of the firm into sequential chain & explores linkages between activities to gain insight into the firm’s competitive position
Routinization…
is an essential step in creating organizational capability
organizational routines are…
regular & predictable behavioral patterns comprising repetitive patterns of activity
viewed as the fundamental building blocks of what firms do & who they are
