Unit 6 DiscussionDiscussion Topic

Core Competencies and Competitive Advantage

In this Discussion, you will examine the capabilities your Capsim Core simulation company needs to develop to deliver its strategy. Let’s begin by assuming that your management team is about to have a meeting to set long range priorities around performance capabilities. This Discussion is pre-work for that meeting.

At this point, you have a vision for your Capsim Core simulation company. Now it’s time to develop a positioning strategy based on competitive advantages and core competencies of your company. For example, you might be thinking, “We plan to be a high technology company. We will concentrate our resources upon the High End, Performance, and Size segments. We will compete in the marketplace based upon differentiation.” Or you might have decided to be in every segment and compete on price, or any of a dozen other combinations of vision and strategy. However, the next step is identifying the capabilities your company will need to develop and to execute your strategy. For example, it is one thing to say, “We will compete on price,” and another to build a company that can effectively compete on price and still produce a solid return for stakeholders.

Let’s relate two popular ideas, “Core Competence” and “Competitive Advantage,” to your situation. You will find dozens of references to “Core Competence” (C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel) and “Competitive Advantage” (Michael Porter) using the library research resources. Through your research, you will find that a company can develop competencies in awareness, accessibility, product redesign, product invention, automation, plant utilization, human resources, cash flow management, and forecasting. All of these competencies take several years to develop. You would use these competencies to develop competitive advantages. For example, competencies in automation and human resources could lead to a competitive advantage in cost leadership. Competencies in awareness, accessibility, and design could lead to a competitive advantage built upon differentiation. With this knowledge and understanding of “core competence” and competitive advantage” as background, present an argument for your management team by meeting the following criteria:

• Identify and explain the top three core competencies of your Capsim Core simulation company that will enable effective implementation of your positioning strategy.
• Explain the competitive advantages of your Capsim Core simulation company.
• Create a positioning strategy based on the core competencies and competitive advantages of your Capsim Core simulation company.
• Provide sound reasoning to support your positioning strategy using research on “Core Competence” (C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel) and “Competitive Advantage” (Michael Porter) from the library.
• Explain how your positioning strategy, based on the core competencies and competitive advantages of your Capsim Core simulation company, will create value for stakeholders, shareholders, communities, and society at large.
• Using persuasive communication skills, present your positioning strategy to your peers for feedback.
• Debate the facts about how core competencies and competitive advantages create value with two of your fellow learners and provide well-substantiated evidence to support or refute their positioning strategy.

Here is the Unit 6 Discussion Grading Rubri