You see it everywhere in magazine articles and advertisements, but what exactly is a core competence? At its simplest, a core competence is a unique capability that affords some type of competitive advantage. It corresponds to a business process, and involves underlying skills, functions, systems and knowledge. To determine if something is of core competence, one must ask, "Does this 'thing' give the company a unique advantage over its competitors and help make the company profitable"? Capabilities, on the other hand, refer to a firm s skill at effectively coordinating its resources.…
