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Formation and development of key competencies of companies. Key Competence

What is corporate model competencies? This problem is faced by personnel officers, consultants who are trying to understand the meaning of competencies, to use them for their intended purpose.

Basic terms

First, let's define the term. Corporate competencies are a volume of professional skills and knowledge, personal attitudes and characteristics that are manifested in the behavior of employees, require the performance of certain job responsibilities.

The competency model is a set of specific competencies that employees need to achieve the goals set by the company's management. Only if employees have certain skills can one count on the successful development of the enterprise.

Corporate competencies imply a system of skills and abilities that an employee possesses in order to be successfully implemented in the professional field.

Components of competence

At present, it is customary to include several indicators here, which are their constituent parts. Corporate competencies involve certain skills and abilities. For example, the competence "effective communication" is characterized by:

the ability to listen, speak;
transmit information in a structured way, build arguments;
find out the position, check it;
use additional resources to help ensure understanding.

These indicators allow you to give a description of the person who will perform the duties. When ordering a ready-made model from a provider, you need to clearly understand what exactly the business and the company need within certain competencies.

Behavioral indicator

The assessment of corporate competencies is associated with the manifestation of indicators in the behavior of employees. It can be both negative and positive, have a serious impact on the efficiency of the enterprise.

For example, for the indicator “clarifies the position, checks understanding”, the following characteristics can be used to describe the behavioral principle: monosyllabic answers to questions, listening to the interlocutor. Indicators of the behavioral plan are written in accessible words that are understandable to ordinary people. Each indicator should have a clear and precise wording. In any report on the results of the assessment of professional competencies, there should be information not only about “what to do”, but also “how to do it”. In the absence of detail in the report, it is difficult to get a complete picture, to establish cause-and-effect relationships.

Varieties of competencies

Currently, there are various corporate competencies. For example, managerial competencies are managerial competencies that every head of a company should possess. For example, "decision making", as well as "execution management". Technical or functional competencies are those that are necessary for activities in a particular unit.

Accounting scale

The corporate competency model has a certain rating scale. It consists of the name of the level. Depending on the imagination of the compiler, they can be called differently: “beginner”, “advanced”, “intermediate”.

The description of the level should be consistent, showing an increase in development. If the company has chosen a layerless model, then the description is limited to the terms “does” or “does not”. An appraisal system can be considered as an application to the scale. Each level of competence development receives a certain amount of points. For example, when representing levels as numerical expressions, one point is selected for each level.

Purpose of competency models

The development of corporate competencies is aimed at establishing certain standards for employees. First of all, we are talking about the level of knowledge, skills, personal qualities that can become both an incentive for development and a brake on the company. The competency model can be considered an analogue, which includes a range of requirements in a transparent and open format. The model may change depending on the goals of the company, as well as on the conditions that exist in the market.

Definition principles

The development of corporate competencies allows the company to occupy a certain niche in its field of activity, to receive a stable profit from its activities. Competences are determined taking into account the specifics of the organization's activities. They allow you to identify business qualities and professional skills that employees must have in order to realize the ideas of the company. Five to seven different behavioral skills are considered optimal.

Corporate competencies of employees - customer focus, leadership, the ability to make responsible decisions, loyalty in the organization, the ability to work in a team. Only with the possession of certain skills and abilities can an employee benefit his organization.

It is this kind of competence corporate governance is an integral part of the work of absolutely any company.

Among behavioral indicators, focus on results is of particular importance. When setting ambitious goals, achieving the planned results is possible only if the employees have professional competencies. A corporate result can be achieved with the energy, perseverance of each employee, the desire to achieve the planned result.

The subordination of one's actions to the work for the planned result, purposeful activity, self-correction and control of actions - all this can be called real professional competencies.

A qualified employee is able to overcome difficulties that hinder the achievement of results. He knows how to evaluate his own effectiveness by the result achieved, and not by the amount of effort expended.

Features of obtaining competencies

The corporate competencies of an organization involve training on three components: knowledge, skills and abilities.

Knowledge is information about a profession. They are determined by surveys and tests, you can check them in exams.

Skills are conscious things that a person can do at the level of awareness.

Skills are indisputable skills used by a person on an intuitive, semi-automatic level. A person who has certain skills is able to think through the “game” several moves ahead, therefore he is important employee for the firm. He will not make serious mistakes that will lead to a loss of profit for the company.

Varieties of competencies

Modern systems of corporate competencies are a combination of various skills and abilities. If a person is spoken of as a real professional, they mean that he owns a unique system of competencies that turn him into a real master in his field of action. Competence determines a person's ability not only to analyze his skills and abilities, but also to manage his professional growth, set himself new creative tasks, and look for ways to solve them.

A real professional knows how to behave in a crisis situation, he is “aware” of his abilities, corporate competencies. Examples of such skills: personal, managerial, professional, general corporate.

The formation of a competency model is developed by analysts taking into account the specifics of the company's activities. This process is called the formation of a model of professional competencies. In order for the company to work effectively, an individual system of competencies is compiled for it, containing complete information about the qualities that a candidate for a certain position should have. This process is called job profiling.

In addition, personnel assessment is carried out according to the adopted profiles. Tests, various surveys are created, practical cases are developed, thanks to which the skills and knowledge of employees are assessed, real indicators are compared with the criteria that were originally presented for each position.

Conducting an assessment of the levels of competence formation

There are several different ways to conduct such an assessment. There are alphabetic and digital models. The most common option is the assessment of competencies according to the following indicators:

"0" suggests complete absence manifestations of competence at the time of assessment;
"1" indicates insufficient skill, weak skills;
"2" implies the presence of skills formed at a minimum level;
"3" implies the manifestation of skills at a high level, understanding and motivation in activities.

Depending on the position of the manager, a set of certain corporate competencies is developed, while professional competencies are reduced. This does not mean at all that the leader will be inferior in professionalism to his subordinates, but special attention is paid to leadership, the ability to unite people into one team. The manager must understand the specifics of the area in which he works in order to make the right and timely decisions.

Examples of competencies

Let us analyze, for example, corporate and professional competence. For example, such a quality as initiative is a manifestation of corporate competence. Many firms dream of their employees being proactive. But to what extent is this allowed?

One point indicates a weak manifestation of this competence. The employee is aware of the importance of his initiatives, but he himself only sometimes comes up with certain proposals within the framework of his own duties.

The initiatives that are offered to them are related to the specifics of its professional activity. He can implement innovative methods work proposed by his supervisor.

A score of two for initiative is considered a strong competency. In this situation, the employee comes up with new methods, schemes, methods of work, thanks to which you can count on a significant increase in performance.

Such an employee enriches, refines, develops those methods and approaches that are already used in production, looking for the possibility of adapting them to a particular company. Such an employee is able to take the initiative, he brings to the company interesting ideas. Otherwise, those ideas that are proposed by the leader will not be developed, the company will not be able to make a profit.

From professional competence, one can cite “playing chess” as an example. Employees of the company must be excellent "chess players" in order to show their creative and personal qualities. With weak competence, which can be represented as one point, the employee understands the rules of the game, takes into account strong and weak sides"rivals", analyzes the actions of colleagues at work. Such an employee does not have sufficient experience to evenly distribute his skills and abilities in order to obtain the optimal result.

For two points in this competence, the employee's awareness of the subtleties, understanding the importance of innovation for production is assumed. If it is critical for a chess player to master professional competence In order to defeat the enemy, it is important for a valuable employee to have corporate competencies.

Conclusion

The total requirements that apply to the professional and corporate competencies of employees who move along career ladder up should have maximum values. When the head of a private company is asked what skills an employee he plans to hire should have, he first of all highlights not diligence, but initiative, as well as the ability to self-develop.

Of the main managerial competencies that are required in modern business, we highlight the ability to plan one's own activities, as well as coordinate the work of colleagues and subordinates. Only if a potential employee has the ability to set goals and objectives, choosing a way to achieve them, can we talk about the formation of corporate competence. The employee must not only see the situation, but also be able to solve the problem, find a way out.

A professional is a person who demonstrates in his work the skills and abilities associated with his competence, can easily answer any question. For example, a purchasing manager must have information about all types of materials and their types, their main technical specifications, purchasing cost, manufacturers.

Model (profile) of competencies

To date, the approach to, based on the concept of competence is the most common.

Competencies represent the personal characteristics of a person, his ability to perform certain functions, types of behavior and social roles such as customer orientation, ability to work in a group.

Competencies include both individual characteristics (eg teamwork, creativity, communication skills) and skills (eg negotiation skills or business planning skills).

The latter definition to a greater extent reveals the concept of competence in terms of recruiting activities, since, as a rule, the assessment is carried out in two directions:

personal characteristics(behavioral competencies);
assessment of knowledge and skills in the professional field.

Such a distribution should not be considered as a classification of competencies, since each organization formulates its requirements for employees and groups competencies depending on the specifics of a particular position. The development (definition and formulation) of competencies for the employees of the organization is carried out on the basis of the organization's strategy. In this case, it is customary to talk about core competencies of the company.

Key competencies- these are competencies developed at the level of the organization, used to characterize and evaluate its employees, in particular for candidates for vacant positions.

1. Provide value to consumers. When attempting to identify core competencies, an organization should assess whether a particular skill contributes to customer perceived value, in other words, whether the competency improves the quality and/or reduces the cost of the service/product provided.

2. To be distinctive that is, unique in its kind, difficult to reproduce by competitors.

3. Ensure the transition to tomorrow's markets. When defining core competencies, it is important to abstract from quality parameters product and determine how existing competencies can be used to produce .

The process of forming an organization's competency model can be represented as a diagram shown in fig. 17. As can be seen from the figure, the formation of a profile of key competencies is one of the tasks strategic planning and management of the organization. The content of key competencies follows from the organization's development strategy.

Rice. 17. The scheme of formation of key competencies of the organization

The number of core competencies for different companies may vary. At the same time, their excessive detailing leads to difficulties in the assessment and selection of personnel (for example, in the presence of 50-100 competencies). Each developed competency should be maximally specifically formulated, because the same words, phrases, terms can be interpreted differently in different conditions.

For example, quite often there is such a requirement for candidates as communication skills. However, this term has many parameters.

An example of candidate requirements parameters:

Sociability:

Ability to quickly connect with strangers
Polite, friendly communication
The ability to convince
Ability to speak publicly
Constant desire to connect with people
Well delivered speech
Grammatically correct speech

IN modern conditions all companies competing in a particular industry have similar characteristics - this is the so-called basic knowledge, without which it would not be possible to coexist in the chosen industry. Such foundations, a kind of “pass” to the industry, are general competencies. General competencies mean a set of advantages, technologies, abilities, knowledge and skills that allows a company to solve typical tasks for a given market segment, to carry out operational processes at a level accepted as a standard.

Since most companies have standard competencies, in order to successfully compete in the market, a company needs to identify its key (core) competencies.

Before proceeding directly to the consideration of the features of key competencies, it is necessary to understand the following two concepts: competence and competence. The existing terms “competence” and “competence” somewhat repeat each other.

The competence of the company is a set of characteristics of the company that makes it professional at the level of competitors. Competence consists of individual competencies and as a whole is based on competitive and leading technologies. Each of the competencies is an element of general competence.

The term “competence” was coined by W. Makelville in 1982. According to Makelville, competence is a range of problems, a field of activity in which a given person has knowledge and experience; a set of powers, rights and obligations of an official, a public organization.

Competence of the company (business competence) is a set of interrelated skills, abilities and technologies that provide the company with the effective solution of certain tasks and situations.

Let's return to the core competencies and consider a few options interpretation of this definition.

Key Competence, according to V. A. Barinov, is what the company does especially well in comparison with its competitors. It should obviously be attributed to the people who work in the company, and not to the assets on the balance sheet.

The key (distinctive, basic, exceptional, basic, unique, business competence) competence of the company is such a competence, the presence of which allows the company to solve problems that are beyond the power of most other market players, establishes new standard activities in the industry and thereby provides the owner with a competitive advantage.

According to D, Campbell, D. Stonehouse and B. Houston: Core competence ( distinguishing feature) is the best use of resources + best development general competencies, i.e. knowledge, skills and abilities.

Prahalad and Hamel (they were the first to introduce the term core competency into business circulation) argued that core competencies are the collective knowledge of the organization, aimed at coordinating diverse production skills and linking together many technological flows. According to Prahalad and Hamel, there are a large number of examples proving that competitive advantage is the result of a key (core) competence.

How, in practice, to distinguish key competencies from general ones, and to determine whether the selected company has them?

Key competencies:

inherent only to those companies whose performance exceeds the average level characteristic of the industry;
are unique and often specific to only one company;
always directly related to customer satisfaction;
contribute to increasing the value of the product more often than general competencies;
differ in complexity;
cannot be copied;
usually arise as a result of special relationships with customers, distributors and suppliers;
are based on the excellent skills and knowledge of the company's employees.

A firm's knowledge of its core competencies is essential to developing a successful strategy. Indeed, by focusing on core competencies and letting other firms supply other goods and services, a company can:

make the best use of your resources by focusing on what you can do best;
create barriers to entry of competitors into markets;
fully exploit the strengths of suppliers that cannot be replicated without massive investment;
reduce risks, reduce the cycle of development and launch of new goods (services) on the markets.

This idea of core competencies has found its expression in a simple but capacious model that shows what the company should do.

A core competency is a unique property that a company has or can have that enables the company to be better than others (Prahalad and Hamel, 1990). The concept of core competencies is based on the following idea: the most important components that determine sustainability competitive advantage company, are its unique tangible and intangible assets (Barney, 1991).

When to Apply the Model

The core competencies model is used as strategic tool to determine the composition of the unique assets that may be required to create value and offer it to consumers. The very process of formulating core competencies encourages managers to comprehend and analyze the strengths and abilities that distinguish the company from competitors. If built on the principle of "outside in", and the analysis of the strategic process in its application begins with external environment, then in the model of core competencies in the version proposed by Prahalad and Hamel (1990), the opposite is true. Their model is based on the assumption that a company's competitiveness is ultimately determined by its ability to create core competencies that lead to unexpected products that are produced at low cost and much faster than competitors can. It is with this approach that a sustainable competitive advantage can be achieved (Fig. 1).

How to use the model

A core competency is perceived by business as a central element that must satisfy three conditions:

contribute measurably to the perceived consumer benefits of end products;
be difficult for competitors to copy;
be able to be widely used to produce a large number of products and serve many markets.

A company that can identify unique assets needed to produce valuable goods and services, and then create or acquire them, can achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. In 1990, Prahalad and Hamel published an article in the Harvard Business Review about the core competence of the corporation, for which they later received prestigious award. Then they went deeper into this idea and published it in a book published in 1994. It talked about how industries might compete in the future. In this paper, the authors urged managers to get answers to the following key questions.

What value will we deliver to our customers in, say, 10 years?
What new competencies (combination of skills and technologies) will we need to develop or acquire to create such value?
What should we pay attention to when interacting with our consumers?

The basic questions in this case are formulated as follows: where do we get such uniqueness and how can we save it? Thinking about the answers to these questions and trying to understand what the core competencies of the company should be, prompts managers to reconsider and, ideally, mobilize all the internal forces that the company has. An important component of this process is foresight (foresight). In the future, of course, there will be new goods and services, the creation of which is not yet possible. New industries and new products will emerge that we don't even think about right now. Managers need to understand that all such uncertainties will have some impact on their business, and therefore they need to decide what the arena might look like in the future. competition. Prahalad and Hamel (1990) argue that the process of thinking about core competencies helps to clarify the extent to which a company can capture a part of an as yet unknown future business. To develop a sense of foresight, managers can use two recommendations.

Think of the company not as a group of business units, but as a set of core competencies.
Determine what the company's unique competencies are (or should be). To do this, you need to analyze how the company operates, as well as consider the performance of its activities in terms of specific processes, products and services. For example, rather than seeing Volvo as just a car manufacturer, it should be seen as a company with unique competencies in product development, ensuring the safety and security of its workers, and testing its machines.

Let go of your current ideas about what your company is or could be.
Define the boundaries of your business and expand them.
Don't be afraid to discuss things you don't understand.
Be good with paradoxes (situations that have no logical explanation, surprises) and bad with paradigms (situations given as an example, a role model).
Imagine yourself in the place of the consumer of your products.
Think in terms of needs.

Once management has an idea of what core competencies their company has or should have, the next step is to develop the strategic architecture. This is not a business plan, but rather a general framework for the business, so that the company can capture a (potentially) significant share of future revenues from emerging opportunities. When creating a strategic architecture, questions and time frames are considered, which together can be called a broad approach to opportunity analysis. In doing so, the following questions need to be answered.

What competencies should be developed?
Which new consumer groups need to be well understood?
What new distribution channels should be explored?
What are the priorities in developing new products?

conclusions

(It is believed that the process of formulating core competencies encourages leaders and managers to think about the strengths and capabilities that distinguish the company from its competitors. However, in practice, this process is actually so difficult that even Hamel and Prahalad cannot, as it seems, In their strenuous efforts to provide enough examples to help demonstrate the universal nature of core competency-based thinking, these authors themselves sometimes get confused and do not clearly distinguish between core products and core competencies.

Even considering this model in retrospect, which increases the chances of presenting it in a more favorable light, one can see how difficult it is to identify core competencies, let alone how to accurately articulate an unknown future. In addition, key competencies are not always in fact as unique and inimitable as they are considered by the leaders and managers of the company. And finally, it should be noted that if your core competencies are stored only in the minds of people who then leave the company, then you probably want to rethink what competencies are actually core to you.

Key competencies include:

collective training conducted in the company;
the ability to combine multiple skills, abilities and technologies;
the ability to combine resources and knowledge in such a way as to provide consumers with best goods and services;
everything that distinguishes a company from others and makes it competitive;
the basis of the company, those "bricks" from which the company is formed into a single whole.

Checklist for identifying core competencies

Is it an important source of competitive advantage?
Does it make the company unique?
Is it widely used in the company?
Is it hard to copy?
Is it hard to understand if it is a combination of technologies, processes and practices in this company?

Examples of core competencies

Sony - miniaturization of electronic equipment.
Honda - creating high performance engines and powerful vehicles.
Apple - creating user-friendly (friendly, as they are called) computer interfaces and good design their products.
Canon - integration of precision mechanics, excellent optics and microelectronics.
3M offers innovative adhesives and substrates.

Content

Introduction
1. Key competencies of the organization: definition and conditions of formation.

1.1. Key business competencies.

1.3. Key competencies as the basis of a sustainable competitive advantage of an enterprise.

2.1. History and characteristics of Microsoft.

2.2. Key competencies on the example of Microsoft.
Conclusion.

Introduction

What are the key competencies of the organization, why are they needed, how to identify them? This course work will answer all these questions and reveal all the definitions.

The key competence of the company (the term "critical success factor of the company" is also used, CSF) is such a competence, the presence of which allows the company to solve problems that are beyond the power of most other market players, sets a new standard for activity in the industry and thus provides the owner with a competitive advantage. Core competencies are what a company can do better than its competitors. Key competencies are a combination of experience, organizational skills and technological systems which creates exceptional consumer value- something that is highly appreciated by customers. Key competencies are generally the main element of the economic activity of the company. Core competencies are those methods of organizing and implementing production that cannot be found only by using a price system to coordinate actions.

The following questions will be considered:

key competencies of the company,
key business competencies,
signs of key competencies as an object of management,
key competencies as the basis of a sustainable competitive advantage of an enterprise.

In this course work, key competencies will be revealed using the example of such a large transnational company as Microsoft.

^ 1. Key competencies: definition and formation

1.1. Key business competencies
The existing terms “competence” and “competence” somewhat repeat each other.

Company Competence- a set of characteristics of the company, which makes it professional at the level of competitors. Competence consists of individual competencies and as a whole is based on competitive and leading technologies. Each of the competencies is an element of general competence.

^ Company Competence (Business Competence) - a set of interrelated skills, abilities and technologies that provide the company with the effective solution of certain tasks, situations. The company's standard competence is a set of advantages, technologies, abilities, knowledge and skills that allows the company to solve typical tasks for this market segment, to carry out operational processes at a level accepted as a standard.

Since the majority of competitors have standard competencies, the lack of standard competencies leads to the company's rapid disappearance from the market. Many standard competencies are confirmed by licenses and certificates. Sometimes competencies are erroneously referred to as company resources.

^ There is also personal (individual) competence - a set of personal properties acquired and fixed by an individual (employee) in the course of training and / or labor activity required for each position a set of knowledge, skills and abilities.
^ Objects of personal competencies employees, jobs. Such competencies (key qualifications, soft skills) of employees, as a rule, are a logical consequence of the company's key competencies, business strategy and the business processes that ensure their implementation.

The development of models of personal competencies is carried out by NDT departments and their contractors. Our site does not consider personal competencies.

1.2. Key competencies of the company
For successful competition, it is necessary to formulate all the company's competencies and highlight the key ones.

key company competence

According to G. Hamel and S.K. Prohalad, a company should be perceived not as a set of business units that make it up, but as a combination of key competencies - skills, abilities, technologies that allow the company to provide its customers with certain values.

Key competence - strategic potential companies. Operational management of the company (the ability to effectively conduct business) is a way to capitalize on the potential.

^ Signs of key competence: significance for consumers, their willingness to pay for the competence as for the greater part of the acquired value; the ability to change and adapt to new market requirements; uniqueness, low probability of repetition by competitors; based on knowledge, not on coincidence; association with multiple activities or products; relevance, compliance with the strategic aspirations of the market and the company; the possibility of partnership to create a new key competency; clarity, accessibility of the formulation of competence for unambiguous interpretation.
Key competencies can be:

knowledge of the needs of the market and the ability to regularly receive this knowledge;
the ability to put into practice the proposals required by the market;
the ability to continuously build and develop their core competencies.

Key competency criteria:

Significance for consumers(consumers are willing to pay for it, it creates most of the perceived value of the consumer)
Uniqueness(difficulty in reaching other companies)
Opportunity for improvement(when new market requirements appear, the competence can be used after a certain modification)
Cooperation(competence may result from the unique interaction of a number of partners, an organization and consumers…)
Competence based on knowledge(rather than being the result of a unique set of circumstances)

^ Leading competencies - these are advantages in solving those problems (situations) that will become a zone of competition in the future with increased competition.

The leading competence ensures the company's leadership in the future, it is the presence of those prerequisites that, with appropriate work, can lead to the creation of a unique selling proposition and ensure the company's leadership, entering a new segment:

When done right, core competencies lead to the creation of unique products, provide the company with leadership in entering new markets and significant advantages in solving problems that will become a field of fierce competition.

In a competitive environment, companies seek to protect core competencies in order to maintain a competitive advantage.

A timely understanding of a core competency paves the way for long-term market leadership, and the leadership gained, in turn, requires focusing efforts on a core competency.

Textbook examples of key competency revisions are well known.

Honda, having once changed the core competency of “production of motorcycles” to “production of internal combustion engines”, has become exactly the Honda that the whole world knows today.

SKF, by changing its core competency “ability to manufacture rolling bearings” to “ability to manufacture objects of ideal spherical shape”, has opened up new possibilities for their application in sound and video recording, precision mechanics and optics, and other industries.

One of ways to determine the key competencies of the company- through identification key clients, the nature of their needs and the company's role in meeting those needs. This method allows a customer-oriented company to get an answer to the question “What should we do today and tomorrow to meet customer needs?” However, sometimes this approach makes it impossible to identify a company's distinctive competencies (example is Sony with its products far ahead of market needs).

Identifying distinctive competencies is not just an analysis of strengths; it requires the managerial intuition of the business owner. The statement of competence should be clear, but general enough to remain relevant for a long time.
Examples of competencies:

Existence of a wide distribution network.
Attracting qualified personnel.
Availability of an effective information system.
Fixing inventions and rationalization proposals in the form of patents.
High degree of capacity utilization.
Improving product quality (reducing the cost of marriage).
Creation of an efficient and customer-friendly system technical support and service.
The ability to create effective advertising.
Ability to effectively retain customers.
The ability to quickly move products from idea to industrial production.
Ability to quickly respond to changing market conditions.

Competence levels:

surface level- instrumental knowledge and skills.
Intermediate skill level- Social and communication skills.
Normative value level- standards of behavior in a professional environment.
A basic level of-personal characteristics, motives, self-esteem.

1.3. Key competencies as the basis for sustainable

Enterprise competitive advantage
High level development of information and telecommunications

Technology has led to the acceleration of the processes of adoption and dissemination,

Copying by competitors of new science-intensive technologies, and any other scientific developments. success strategic development contemporary industrial enterprise, its role as an "intellectual leader" in the industry, in this regard, is increasingly determined by internal intangible resources that are difficult to imitate by competitors, the efficiency of using the intellectual and creative potential of personnel, the uniqueness of organizational knowledge, organizational systems applied technologies, formation and development of key competencies of the enterprise as factors of sustainable competitive advantage.

The main resource for the strategic development of the company in the conditions of the "new

Economies" ("knowledge economies") are not external static, natural and social factors that favor the development of the company, which are traditional for an industrial society, but intellectual capital, the creative potential of personnel, unique organizational knowledge, innovations at all stages of creating a product before moving it from the manufacturer to the consumer.In this regard, the definition of sustainable competitive advantage has been clarified companies as a permanent (due to the dynamics of functional properties) superiority over competitors in a number of the following product features: customer value, uniqueness, novelty.

Analysis of the evolution of theoretical approaches to the sources and criteria of sustainable competitive advantage (Portera M., H. Itami, A.M.

Brandenburger and B. J. Neilbuff, J. F. Moore, T. Peters and R. Waterman, I. Ansoff and others) showed that the most effective concept in modern conditions is the concept of key competencies proposed by G. Hamel and K .TO. Prahalad, since this concept is the basis of the company's "intellectual leadership" in the industry, ahead of the creation, retention and development of specific sources of sustainable competitive advantages that are difficult to imitate by competitors in modern conditions - the key

Competencies.
Table 1 - Signs of key competencies as an object of management.

Selected signs.	Key competencies as an object of management.

The necessary infrastructure for the development of key competencies.	The relationship of human and organizational capital: special skills, staff skills and innovative technologies, communication and information systems enterprise, corporate culture and other elements.
Criteria for the development of key competencies of an industrial enterprise.	Growth of consumer capital, customer satisfaction and loyalty, investment attractiveness of the company.
Carriers of key competencies.	Personnel with relevant knowledge, skills, abilities and motivations.

"System of key competencies" enterprise, which is

A complex of interconnected and mutually contributing to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage of an enterprise, directions of its strategy by types, levels and criteria for the development of key competencies of an enterprise (Figure 1)

^ Internal component - these are knowledge, skills, abilities, technologies and other elements of human and organizational capital, which in interaction form the main types of key competencies of the enterprise. External component - these are elements of the enterprise's market capital, this is an "external" manifestation of key competencies (consumer

Value, uniqueness, novelty of products; financial results,

Satisfying investors, owners).

To determine the elements of the internal component of the "system of key

competencies" we highlight the types of key competencies of industrial

Enterprises: by functional areas, by communication with specific carriers of key competencies and types of systemic key competencies; and levels: dynamic (more subject to change, not related to specific carriers, divided by functional areas) and basic (providing conditions for the functioning and changes of dynamic key competencies, the most valuable, difficult to imitate for competitors, are divided into systemic And personal) key competencies. "The system of key

competencies" consists of five directions: within the framework of the external component - the consumer (market), financial direction, the internal component - the direction of dynamic key competencies, basic key competencies and the direction of "intellectual leadership".

It is necessary to highlight the direction of "intellectual leadership", which refers to the internal component and is a kind of "impulse" for changing the parameters of the elements of the "system of key competencies" of the enterprise.

The proposed methodology for the formation and development of key competencies

An industrial enterprise allows solving the tasks of managing key competencies at each allocated stage: "inventory", "search", "development", "deepening" and "preservation" of key competencies.

On first stage (inventory) factors are identified, on

which the competitive strategy of the enterprise is based, are determined

"used" sources of competitive advantage. The result of this stage is the creation of an "inventory" of the company's key competencies. Obtaining the actual state of the "system of key competencies". The following errors may occur during this task:

an attempt to assign this task to technical
services;
misunderstanding of assets and infrastructure as key
competencies;
focused only on final product picture of
the company's capabilities;
insufficient use and understanding of the criterion "perceived by the consumer of value" when compiling a list of competencies.

On this stage a control comparison of key

Company competencies with key competencies of other firms. Target

Key Competency Definitions - to develop a comprehensive understanding of the skills that currently provide the strategic success of the enterprise, move to the search for new opportunities and create a basis for actively managing the most valuable resources of the enterprise.

Figure 1 - The system of key competencies of the enterprise.
"Search" core competencies of an industrial enterprise is associated with

Identification of new production opportunities, expansion of the target market, with the search for innovative production and management technologies, search and development of personnel with unique skills, abilities and experience. At the next stage ("development"), the goals of the enterprise development strategy are formalized on the basis of key competencies in the areas of the external and internal components of the "system of key competencies", they are translated into the form of indicators for achieving the set strategic goals of the company's development based on key competencies (" key indicators"), detailing strategic goals and indicators to the level of operational activities.

Stage "recesses" key competencies includes highlighting the relationship between goals and indicators in the areas of the "system of key competencies" of the enterprise, initiating processes feedback with the development strategy of the key competencies of the enterprise, control over the implementation of strategic goals, construction of hypotheses for the strategic development of the enterprise based on modeling the state of the system of "key competencies" of the enterprise.

"Preservation" core competencies is carried out on the basis of the installation

Barriers that protect against imitation of unique parameters by competitors internal environment enterprises. From our point of view, this is the most important stage in the functioning of the methodology developed in the dissertation. At each stage of the methodology, after the stage of "inventory" of key competencies, management methods are applied that most of all differ in the specifics of each type of key competencies (basic and dynamic) of the enterprise, most of all depend on the nature of their occurrence.

^ 2. Key competencies of the organization on the example of Microsoft.

2.1. History and characteristics of Microsoft
Microsoft is the largest multinational manufacturing company software for various kinds of computing equipment - personal computers, game consoles, PDAs, mobile phones and others. Also produces some accessories for personal computers (keyboards, mice, etc.). The staff counted in 2004. 57,000 employees. A public company, its shares are traded on the NASDAQ: MSFT. The company is headquartered in Redmond (a suburb of Seattle), Washington.

Founded in 1975 Bill Gates and Paul Allen, then students. The name of the company is short for English. MICROcomputer SOFTware (software for microcomputers).

It all started in the last century, back in 1975, when Paul Allen and Bill Gates, after reading the book published on January 1, 1975. in the Popular Electronics magazine an article about the new Altair 8800 personal computer, developed a Basic language interpreter for it. A month later, on February 1, 1975, a license agreement was signed with Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), the manufacturer of this PC, to use Basic as part of Altair software. In the same year, Bill Gates, in a letter to Allen, suggested the name for their company - Micro-Soft (with a hyphenated spelling). Your first year new company, which employed three people, ended with a turnover of $ 16,005. Compare this with 2000, in which corporate revenues amounted to $ 25.3 billion, and profits - more than 7.3 billion. The history of Microsoft development is touched upon in the movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley" .

Main article: Software from Microsoft.

Produces operating systems of the Windows family (Windows), office applications of the family Microsoft office, server application suites, games, multimedia products, software development tools, and Xbox game consoles. Leads a policy of actively buying up promising companies - software developers. In particular, as a result of the takeover of Navision, Solomon, Great Plains, a new large area of Microsoft Dynamics (previously called Microsoft Business Solutions) appeared in the Microsoft assortment. Three solutions in this area are presented in Russia: ERP systems Axapta, Navision and relationship management system - Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Microsoft is often characterized by the fact that its business culture is built around developers. A huge amount of money and time is spent each year recruiting young university-trained software developers and keeping them in the company. For example, while many software companies put their developers in cramped offices, Microsoft provides a private or near-private office for every developer or developer couple. Also, key decisions at all levels are made by developers or former developers.

The "Eat your dog's food" principle is common in the Company, which can be defined as the use of the latest Microsoft products within the company to test them in realistic conditions. Only unfinished versions of programs are used as "dog food".

The company is also known for its out-of-the-box methods in job interviews. For example, non-trivial questions like “Why are manhole covers round?” can be asked. Many organizations have adopted this approach, although it is now much less common than in the past.

In the US, Microsoft funds several public policy institutions, including the American Enterprise Institute, the Cato Institute, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the Heritage Foundation.

Figure 2 - The current organizational structure of Microsoft.

2.2. Divisions at Microsoft

Platform Products and Services Division:
This division produces the main brainchild of the company - the Windows operating system. During the existence of the company, several versions of graphical shells for DOS were released - Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me (only Windows 3.1 was a shell over DOS, and Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me inherited the old 16-bit code). As well as full-fledged operating systems of the NT “series” (read as en-ti): Windows NT 4, the most common version promoted under the NT brand, had 6 numbered service packs - service pack; Windows 2000 (Windows NT 5), Windows XP (Windows NT 5.1), Windows Server 2003 (Windows NT 5.2). Released at the beginning of 2007, Windows Vista (Windows NT 6) is just beginning its timid (compared to Windows XP) steps on the market. In the world, most personal computers for buyers (end users) are sold with a pre-installed copy of some kind of Windows. Most common on this moment- Windows XP.

Also included in this division is the Internet service MSN, the cable television station MSNBC and the Microsoft Slate online store. In 1997, Microsoft acquired Hotmail, which was renamed "Microsoft Hotmail". In 1999, the instant messaging program MSN Messenger was introduced to compete with the popular AOL Instant Messenger.

Microsoft Visual Studio is a collection of programming utilities and compilers. This set of programs is GUI-oriented and uses third-party Microsoft libraries. latest version was released in 2005.

Microsoft also offers server software sold under the name Windows Server System. The main part is Windows Server 2003 - an operating system for network servers. Another important program of this set is System Management Server - a collection of utilities for various server operations, such as remote control, etc.

Business division. The main task of this division is the development of financial and business applications for various companies. It produces Microsoft Office, the company's line of office applications, which includes: Word (Text editor), Access (Database management), Excel (Create spreadsheets), Outlook (Working with email and sharing services such as Microsoft Exchange), PowerPoint (Presentation Tools), Microsoft FrontPage (HTML editor).

^ Entertainment and Devices Division:

Microsoft is constantly pushing the Windows brand into other markets. Examples of this advancement are Windows CE for PDAs and the creation of smartphones running Windows Mobile.

^ Corporation structure.
The company is managed by a board of directors consisting of ten people. These ten people are elected at the annual shareholders' meeting. Those who do not receive a majority of votes must submit their resignation, which is subsequently considered. To consider various issues, there are 5 committees: Audit (related to audit issues), Compensation (approves compensation to company employees), Financial (decision financial matters), Control and Extension (solution of various internal matters) and anti-crisis (forecasting and preventing crises).
2.2222Microsoft Core Values
Considering the issues of key competencies and dynamic capabilities, it is necessary to note the system of corporate values of Microsoft, that is, beliefs and organizational norms shared by almost all employees of the company. Core values, or corporate culture, are like the cement that holds the entire organization together, and they contribute, both positively and negatively, to the ability of the company as a whole to achieve and maintain competitive advantage. Microsoft creates core values that contribute to the success of the corporation.

^ Result orientation. Microsoft's corporate culture has some notable features. There is no doubt that the corporation has a cult of personality, but employees do not just bow to Gates or blindly follow his example, but try to adopt and reproduce his most useful features. Employees constantly try to guess "what Bill would do", but they also say it's an honor to defy him and win. Gates managed to instill in his employees that great ideas are only ideas that can be sold. What really motivates highly educated workers is a sense of pride in a job well done. The style adopted in the company reflects the qualities of its leader: self-confidence, energy, creativity and diligence. The atmosphere in the company is informal but purposeful, entirely devoted to the development of new programs and highly competitive. The working day of employees often goes beyond the norm, many stay overnight, developing programs. psychological method Gates' employee motivation is based on setting goals that are out of reach and instilling a sense of defeat in employees that forces them to put in more effort next time. The company's philosophy of personal responsibility is reinforced by a management reporting system that records P&L status for each sales manager as well as for the head of the overseas subsidiary.
^ Spirit of competition. It may seem strange that Microsoft and its employees feel insecure, however, the company tends to believe that even short-term setbacks are tantamount to a loss. Employees of the company in their work are largely guided by the fear of failure and the threat of dismissal. For several years, Gates has motivated his subordinates with reminders of the competitive dangers ahead of the company. When a product is released, has received rave reviews, and prices have skyrocketed, Microsoft employees aren't celebrating, but reconsidering what needs to be done better. And top management always points out to the company's programmers their number one enemy - Novell in 1994, Netscape in 1995 and 1996, Sun Microsystems in 1997, 1998 and 1999. "Remember," says Gates, "Microsoft's 'we'd better keep going' ethos." But for Gates, his biggest challenger is himself: new and improved Microsoft programs. The company must ensure that all our new products are much better than the previous ones. If we don't do this, consumers won't buy new programs."
^ Openness to bad news. Gates says: "I have a natural instinct to look for bad news. If something is wrong, I want to know everything. The people who work with me understand this." The product review meetings with Gates, known as "Bill meetings," are sharp and relentless questions, sharp criticism, and tight deadlines. Gates sometimes claims that his most important job as a company executive is listening to bad news.

^ 2.2. Key competencies on the example of Microsoft.
Core competencies are what a company can do better than its competitors. Core competencies are a combination of experience, organizational skills and technological systems that creates exceptional customer value - something that customers highly value. That's why true source competitive advantage is the ability of corporation leaders to consolidate organizational, technological and production potential to strengthen individual production programs(or corporate enterprises) in a highly competitive environment. Thus, it is then easier for a company to achieve a competitive advantage over rivals when it has key competencies in an area important for success in the market, while competitors do not have such competencies and it is too expensive and time consuming to obtain them. For example, competitors may acquire some technology lines that are part of the core competencies, but they will usually face significant difficulties if they try to copy more or less complete system intracorporate organization production process necessary for the transformation of simple technological lines into technological core competencies.

Key competencies are generally the main element of the economic activity of the company. Accordingly, in order to determine them, it is necessary to consider the entire range of products and services of the company and its competitors. Thus, the key competencies of Eastman Kodak are the clarity of image transmission, IBM is the speed and reliability of data processing, Motorola is the reliability and quality of wireless communications. The weight and importance of core competencies to a company's competitive advantage depends on how well it can maintain its competitive edge and how difficult it is to copy those competencies.

Core competencies are those methods of organizing and implementing production that cannot be found only by using a price system to coordinate actions. The essence of core competencies is that they cannot be obtained ready-made, since they cannot be exactly repeated. character traits internal organization companies by simply copying the set of organizational units identified in the formal contracts. Even when a company does not actually own every link in the value chain of its products, competitors will still not be able to exactly copy key competencies. Thus, competitors of the Western Union payment system have not yet been able to achieve coherence and global coverage of customers, despite the fact that the technologies used in Western Union are now available to everyone.

Thus, competitive advantage may not require competencies at every stage of the customer value chain. But control and efficiency in the most important areas are necessary to determine the competitive position. One should always distinguish between those actions that lead to success in competition with other firms and those that are necessary for the firm's survival. For example, the quality of rubber on the chassis of a jet fighter must meet a minimum set of requirements for takeoff and landing. Therefore, having chosen the necessary chassis, the designer should stop thinking about it (if he needs to do it at all) and focus on aspects that determine who will emerge victorious from the battle, for example, on the weapon guidance system. In other words, the core competencies of corporations are the activities that are vital to achieving competitive advantage.

^ Standards control . Microsoft has been successful in creating product standards in its industry. The Windows operating system developed by the company claims 86% of the market, and a set of Microsoft programs Office - by 87%. The logic of control over standards is different from the usual logic of competition. A car manufacturer, for example, having achieved a market share determined by the consumer characteristics of its products, will be able to increase its sales volumes with difficulty in the future. Microsoft, on the other hand, is having less and less trouble increasing sales as more and more people buy its products: the millionth customer of the Windows operating system doesn't just give over $100 to the company, they create one million compatible Windows-to-Windows relationships. That is, the consumer value of Microsoft products, as well as other standard products, lies in the exponentially increasing compatibility of products. Microsoft has invested huge amounts of money in gaining control over industry standards, often just giving away its software for free in order to increase the number of users. Today, Microsoft is focusing on taking control of standards in new areas: automated personal computers, cable TV and other types information business for which he spares neither money nor time. The company's strategy in recent years has been to expand into new computer markets, from the PDA market to the giant corporate network market, with its new versions of the Windows operating system. The company's biggest hopes are in the soon-to-be-renamed Windows 2000 version of Windows NT. The company wants to make the operating system the standard for virtually all types of computers. The enormity of the project to create software for such a wide range of computers cannot be overestimated, both in terms of impact on the entire industry and in terms of creating a long-term competitive advantage for Microsoft.
^ System compatibility. Microsoft makes products that can work with each other. The consumer who purchases Microsoft Office knows that all applications are compatible and will interoperate on a Windows-based system. The company is developing additional features for its key products, Office, BackOffice and Windows. There are many other programs, such as Visual Studio, that are just as important, but Microsoft today prefers to improve on its core products. Part of this strategy is the company's desire to invest not in costly add-ons, but in improving the functionality and networking of Windows. About 30% of the money allocated for R & D, the company invests in projects to expand system compatibility.
^ Cross-functional commands. Microsoft is a clear mission-driven company, its organization more like a complex web of teams and projects than a clear vertical orientation. It has no internal organizational boundaries, but all together try to cope with the difficulties. The corporation successfully directs the activities of people working in various departments on various programs in order to overcome the problems facing the company as a whole. Gates' approach to teamwork is to tell everyone, “Don't worry about the others. I guarantee that they will do their job and release products with the right specification at the right time. Just do your thing and don't think about the rest." Because of this organization, different teams can work simultaneously rather than sequentially, which speeds up the development process and avoids disagreements between employees. The manufacturing process is transformed into a well-thought-out plan of action for the release of compatible products.

So if Microsoft's core competencies lie in technology integration, they also lie in the ability to build an organization to produce the highest customer value. Such core competencies are based on experience and knowledge, and not on machines, machines and other physical assets. So, unlike core balance sheets that wear out over time, Microsoft's core competencies don't lose their value from their use. On the other hand, even such competencies need to be protected and improved - without constant application, experience is lost.

Conclusion

key(distinctive, basic, exceptional, basic, unique, business competence) company competence(the term “critical success factor of a company” is also used, CFU) is such a competence, the presence of which allows the company to solve problems that are beyond the power of most other market players, sets a new standard for activity in the industry and thus provides the owner with a competitive advantage.

Core competencies are what a company can do better than its competitors. Core competencies are a combination of experience, organizational skills and technological systems that creates exceptional customer value - something that customers highly value. Key competencies are generally the main element of the economic activity of the company. Core competencies are those methods of organizing and implementing production that cannot be found only by using a price system to coordinate actions.

A perfect illustration of the above is the Microsoft Corporation, whose strong market position and ultra-high profits are based on three core competencies of the company:

Standards control.
System compatibility.
Cross-functional commands.

Thus, it can be said that the topic of this term paper fully disclosed and answered all of the above questions.
Bibliography.

1. Magazine " Economic strategies". Zakhar Bolshakov. (