Strategic Resource Management

Study Notes

Threshold resources are the minimum resources needed to meet customers' requirements and continue to exist.
Unique resources are those that underpin competitive advantage and are difficult for competitors to imitate or obtain.

CSFs are product features that are particularly valued by a group of customers, and where the organisation must excel to outperform competition.
Major sources of CSFs include:
- Structure of the industry (e.g., service support expected by customers)
- Competitive strategy, industry position, and geographic location (e.g., India's English-speaking manpower for outsourcing)
- Environmental factors (e.g., deregulation of Indian industry)
- Temporal factors (e.g., sudden loss of critical manpower or break-up of a family-owned business)

Core competences are the skills and abilities by which resources are deployed through an organisation's activities and processes to achieve competitive advantage.
Characteristics of core competences include:
- Providing distinctive advantage for the firm
- Being difficult for competitors to imitate
- Being rare, complex, and embedded in the culture
- Making a significant contribution to customer value and end products
- Providing access to a wide variety of markets

Technological excellence can be a route for acquiring core competence.
Firms must invest heavily in technology and R&D to build core competence in technology.
This includes looking for relevant technologies, building competencies, and developing human skills to use them.

Distinctive technologies are those in which the company's standing gives it a distinctive competence.
They provide an organisation with a unique competitive advantage in the market place.
Organisations must protect, nourish, and capitalise on distinctive technologies.