Company	Competence
Sony	Miniaturization
Federal express	Supply management; routing of parcels and their delivery
Wal-mart	Supply management
Motorola	Wireless communications, digital data compression, flat panel display manufacturing and power supply technology, and fast cycle times
Merck	Drug development
Marriott	Restaurant and building management
Honda	Manufacture of engines and electric trains
ZM	Production of adhesives, substrates and new materials
EDS	System integration
Hewlett-Packard	Measurement, computer data processing and communication
Nike	Procurement, Quality Design, Product Development, Athlete Support, Distribution Networks

The most common is the division of competencies into tangible and intangible (by analogy with assets). Tangible and intangible assets serve as components of a firm's core competencies; and more intangible elements such as organizational processes and culture shape it when added coordinated asset and resource allocation function... The creation of competencies is called "organizational alchemy" as they are built on the intangible, hard to buy and hard to copy the abilities of organizations. It is much more difficult for a firm to create a new competency than it is to gain access to resources and assets. The complex human and behavioral aspects of an organization can be more challenging not only to imitate, but also to manage and transform. There are three fundamental forms of competence: knowledge, know-how and attitude.

According to experts, the internal and external competencies of a company should include only those factors that provide it with significant competitive advantages and cannot be easily copied by competitors. Typically, these are factors that require significant industry experience to create. For example, to internal competences include the following:

• know-how, unique technologies, the ability to create competitive products;
• well-developed and effective business processes (project management, quality management, sales, marketing, planning, budgeting, staff motivation ...);
• availability of qualified personnel who are difficult to find in the labor market and which takes a lot of time to train.

To external competences relate:

• the presence of stable relations with suppliers and consumers (agents, dealers and distributors);
• opportunities to lobby their interests (having connections with government bodies);
• the ability to provide financing in the required amount, in the shortest possible time and at an affordable price (presence of stable relations with financial institutions and investors).

Competence typology

Competence	Examples of
Independent assets: tangible and intangible	Equipment, buildings, goods, software, trade marks
Cognitive opportunities: individual and collective, explainable and non-verbal	Knowledge, skills, know-how, technologies, patents
Organizational Processes and Day-to-Day Operations: Associated with the coordinated deployment of R. Sanchez, A. Heen and H. Thomas (1996)	Coordination mechanisms in an organization that combine individual actions into collective functioning
Organizational structure: can facilitate or hinder a firm's ability to adapt to certain changes	Designing the structure of the organization and its connections with the outside world (suppliers, customers, etc.)
Identity: can promote or hinder the adaptive capacity of the firm	Behavioral and cultural characteristics. Signs of identity: shared values, beliefs, rituals and taboos.

A clear understanding of key competencies makes it possible to create a new competitive space, develop new types of business. This will avoid the "tyranny of the serviced market". To achieve only parity with competitors is clearly not enough; companies must move from satisfying needs to anticipating them all the time; to lead consumers with them; from focusing on a core business to diversification around core competencies.

Thus, the company's strategy should be aimed at creating and strengthening its competencies, as well as developing its dynamic capabilities.

Lecture 10. The main types of business strategies (Porter's strategic model). Content and distinctive features of business strategies. Cost leadership strategy: essence, necessary market conditions, main risks of application. Strategic cost analysis and value chain. Outsourcing as a method of value chain management.

A business unit strategy usually defines how to operate in a competitive environment within its industry in order to be successful.

« Competition strategy, - Porter writes, "These are defensive or offensive actions aimed at gaining a strong position in the industry, successfully overcoming the five competitive forces and thereby generating higher returns on investment." Strategy development has three facets: deciding where the firm has the greatest chance of winning the competition; development of such characteristics of the offered products that are able to attract the buyer and distinguish the company from among other competitors; neutralization of competitive measures of opponents.

While Porter acknowledges that companies have demonstrated many different ways to achieve this goal, he insists that it is only through internally consistent and successful strategies that you can outperform other firms. These are the typical strategies.

Any organization can be viewed not only as a portfolio of products or services, but also as a portfolio of competencies that determine its place in the competition. An organization that does not attach importance to core competencies exposes itself to many of the hazards depicted in Fig. 13.7.

Fig. 13.7. Hazards of loss of key competencies

First, the risk is that the organization's growth potential will be unreasonably understated. The underestimation of the opportunities that arise in the gaps between established markets and emerging new niches is explained by the desire of organizations to tie each of its strategic centers to the existing competitive space. Second, an attempt to hire (attract) specialists with the necessary skills may fail if the organization lacks clear mechanisms for selecting the best talent for the most promising new opportunities (including from among employees of other departments of the organization itself). Third, as an organization becomes fragmented, competencies can become fragmented and weakened. Fourth, the lack of promising core competencies can make the organization insensitive to increasing dependency

from external suppliers of such key products. Outsourcing, which provides a certain gain in quality and cost of products, can play a cruel joke here, depriving the organization of competitive advantages in the future.

Fifth, an organization focused only on end products is often unable to adequately invest in new core competencies that could lead to future growth. Sixth, an organization that fails to grasp the essence of the characteristics required to compete in its industry may be caught off guard by new entrants relying on competencies developed in other end-product markets. And the last risk factor for the loss of competencies is indifference to the creation of key competencies, as a result of which organizations unwittingly give up valuable skills, abandoning a business that does not bring acceptable results at the moment.

Overcoming the risks discussed above is achieved through the close-knit work of the team of managers of the organization in the process of solving the main tasks of managing the key competencies of the organization: identifying already existing key competencies; creation of a program for acquiring missing key competencies; creation of missing key competencies by the forces of the organization itself; deploying key competencies and protecting and maintaining leadership in key competencies (Figure 13.8).

Rice. 13.8.

can form the core competence of an organization. This definition allows you to develop an understanding of the skills that currently shape the success of the organization, and to avoid myopia in approaching the service market, as well as to indicate the path to new business, heighten a sense of the reality of the struggle for competencies and create the basis for actively managing the most valuable resources of the organization.

2. The core competencies acquisition program is determined by the strategic architecture of the organization. It is useful to draw up a competency matrix in the market segment of manufactured products. The differences between existing and new competencies and between existing and new market-forming products are shown in Fig. 13.9.

New core competency	Lead in 10 years	Mega Opportunities
	What new core competencies need to be created to protect, maintain and expand advantage in current markets?	What new core competencies do you need to create to participate in the promising markets of the future?
Existing core competency	Filling in the gaps	"White spaces"
	How can you improve your existing position in today's markets by optimally leveraging your current core competencies?	What new products or services can you create through creative deployments or new combinations of your current core competencies?
	Existing market	New market

Rice. 13.9.Competence matrix

Filling in the gaps. The lower left quadrant of the figure represents the organization's existing portfolio of competencies and goods or services. Having identified which competencies support specific markets for a final product, an organization can identify opportunities to strengthen its position in the market for a given product by attracting competencies that it may possess.

Lead in 10 years. The upper left quadrant is looking for an answer to another important question: What new core competencies need to be created now to stay in first place with clients in ten years? It is important to understand what new competencies are needed to maintain and expand the dominant position of an organization in existing markets. This sector involves finding a solution to the problem of outdated competencies: replacing outdated competencies with new ones. The search for new competencies should include the identification of new opportunities that could supplant the traditional skills base.

"White spaces" (lower right sector of the picture). Includes opportunities not found in the product markets of the organization's existing strategic centers, or opportunities to extend existing core competencies to new product markets. At the same time, the organization should begin identifying the prospects for "white spaces" with defining the key competence, and not from the perspective of the product market, and only then one can consider the potential results of applying the customer value that a specific competence will give.

Mega Opportunities (upper right sector of the picture). They do not correspond to the position of the organization in the current market or the fund of its current competencies. But, nevertheless, an organization can search for these opportunities if they seem particularly important or attractive. The strategy in this case could be a series of small targeted acquisitions or partnerships through which the organization would gain access to the necessary competencies, learn them and begin to explore the possibility of their application. But the opportunities offered by this sector should be viewed with great caution, as the organization has little or no decision-making skills in this area.

• 3. The creation of new core competencies as a process is extensible over time, therefore success brings a consistency of efforts focused on a strategic perspective. The consistency of efforts, in turn, depends on the cohesion and stability of the composition of the management team of the organization. Frequent change of project leaders and leading departments disrupts the process of creating new core competencies.
• 4. Deployment of key competencies is a process of internal distribution of competencies and consolidation of relevant skills among employees of the organization as a whole (including the exchange of competencies between employees of the organization). This deployment of competencies increases the intellectual capital of the organization, which is confirmed by the ratio of the market and book value of the assets of organizations, which in the mid-1990s. was 2: 1, 4: 1 and even 10: I 1. In this sense, the rational use of intellectual capital becomes more important (and at the same time more complicated due to the multifactorial nature of the process) than the distribution and use of money capital. The organization should have mechanisms that allow those employees who can and want to make a personal contribution to one of the priority projects, to realize the potential of their competencies. Project managers should be able, in turn, to select employees to the project team, justifying the benefits of such a decision for the organization as a whole. This mobility of competencies, as well as frequent meetings of employees representing a specific competence, facilitate the exchange of ideas, knowledge and experience. Seminars and conferences also go a long way in bringing people together. The experience gained as a result of this mutual enrichment accelerates the creation of competencies.
• 5. Protection and preservation of key competencies is due to competition and the desire of the management team of the organization to ensure strategic development.

It is strategically important to understand that core competencies do not exist for themselves, but for the development of the organization. Therefore, it is important not to strive to "drive" key competencies into the organization at all costs through structural changes, but to ensure the "soft implementation" of the organization's perspective on the basis of competencies in the head of each employee. The factors of soft implementation of key competencies are shown in Fig. 13.10. For such a smooth transition, it is necessary to focus on the following strategically significant actions of the organization:

• deploy the process of defining key competencies;
• involve strategic centers in the process of developing a strategic architecture and setting goals for acquiring competencies;
• highlight the priority areas of the corporation's growth and new business development;
• select managers of key competencies and clearly define their functions;
• create an effective mechanism for allocating resources of key competencies;
• establish benchmarks for comparison with the competencies of competitors;
• regularly monitor the status of existing and emerging core competencies;
• create groups of people who consider themselves to be carriers of the key competencies of the entire organization.

Rice. 13.10.

Providing the noted conditions makes it possible to rationally ensure the development and modification of business strategies.

test questions

• 1. What are the aspects of resources and business competencies?
• 2. Comment on the steps to build a strategy based on core competencies.
• 3. Give examples of companies' strategic mottos.
• 4. How do the areas of core competencies and the areas of application of Sai / o's products fit together?
• 5. Highlight the levels of key competencies.
• 6. What is the dichotomy of organizational strategic characteristics?
• 7. What is the basis of the construction of the accounting sheet scheme when creating values?
• 8. The combination of what elements does competence as a scientific category contain?
• 9. What are the factors behind the loss of key competencies?
• 10. Name five key competency management tasks.

• When defining your own core competencies, you need to draw up an inventory and choose from it what is really

Key competencies

Key competencies

Competence from Latin competo - “I strive, I match the approach”. Professional competence, in fact, is the ability to fulfill one's work obligations in accordance with accepted norms and standards, that is, successfully, without supervision and constant (unplanned) assistance from outside.

The purpose of the competence allocation is to increase the efficiency of the work (quality and quantity) of the company. If a person can demonstrate the necessary skills and results of work, he is suitable for us. Competences are needed for a preliminary and tracking intermediate assessment of his capabilities, helping him in development and correcting mistakes, for understanding himself in the end.

There are many interpretations of the concept of "competence" and, accordingly, approaches to their identification and use.

1. Key competencies - qualities and personality traits of a professional, allowing them to fulfill the tasks assigned to the employee in accordance with the main business function of the organization and division.

1. Specific key business competence- at the level of the company's know-how, taking into account the peculiarities of the corporate culture.
2. A set of competencies for a position from an exhaustive set of competitions(will be presented below).
3. Competencies presented both personal and professionalhonors(see Attachment 4 ).

The presence of competencies in no way excludes the list naperformance evaluation parameters, which competencies can include, otherwise they only disorient managers and employees themselves, making the assessment too superficial and ineffective. How is it possible, for example, to replace with competencies quantitative indicators of employees' work or an assessment of their appearance and discipline ?!

Competencies- these are simplified, reduced to absolute understanding and (or) synthesized, isolated from "folklore" definitions (preferably in the working language of managers and employees) of the professional and personal characteristics of successful employees, according to which it is easiest to operate quickly or in a set with other criteria (parameters) evaluate the work of the employees of a given company, subject to the presence of a common language of corporate culture.

Competence as skills and abilities. The differences are that a skill is a specific action with an expected result, and competence is usually not described in terms of an end result, but can and ultimately should be described or created based on it.

In practice, all these approaches intersect and complement each other. For example, in the framework of the annual performance assessment or appraisal, employees in most companies are also assessed by a set of competencies. Based on the latter, HR services can draw up profiles of success for each position and target levels of development of competencies for the year ahead in terms of career development and professionalism of the employee within the company. For any group of positions of a certain specialization, there can and should be its own hierarchy of competencies, possibly from a general exhaustive list. Within this hierarchy, there are 4-7 areas that are most valuable - key, or basic, competencies.

For the head of the sales department, the most important are:

■ communicative qualities;

■ organizational skills;

■ customer focus;

■ entrepreneurial and financial approaches. For a literary editor, the following are important:

■ patience;

■ attention;

■ ability to persuade;

■ "innate" literacy.

Below is an example prioritized by three occupational profiles (Table 1).

Practitioners within the company are almost always clear what they mean by "sociability" or "progressive views", but to prevent misunderstandings, it is still better to fix what it consists of and what it represents in the activities of a certain group of employees. The secretary's sociability for the client may include:

■ positive self-attunement;

■ experience in telephone counseling;

■ attitude to help people;

■ personal sociability.

Sociability is “the ability, positively perceiving any client, any call, to be able to quickly understand its essence and focus and respond in accordance with certain cultural norms and in the information field of the specified parameters” (the wording of the competence “secretary's sociability” from one of the Internet companies. - Note. auth.).

The process of working with competencies is best carried out in a technological sequence similar to the one presented below. This will allow them to be used with the greatest impact and benefit for all stakeholders within the company.

Full cycle of work with competencies at the level of the entire organization.

1. Description an exhaustive list competencies important for the successful work of a group of employees, experts.

1. Allocation of basic (core, core) competencies or, possibly, macro competencies. Macro competencies are unique combinations of professional knowledge, skills and experience expressed in technologies for creating and distributing products (management know-how, intellectual and organizational results) that are difficult to develop and useless to copy.
2. Achieving the required level of detail.

table 1. Priorities of the three professional profiles 1

Competencies	Position
trade representative active sales	Secretary	manager
Ability to quickly establish contact with strangers on their own initiative	Necessary	Indifferent	Desirable
Polite, friendly communication	Necessary	Necessary	Necessary
Ability to persuade	Necessary	Desirable	Necessary
Ability to speak publicly	Indifferent	Indifferent	Necessary
The need for communication	Necessary	Indifferent	Desirable
Well-delivered speech	Necessary	Desirable	Necessary
Grammatically correct speech	Necessary	Necessary	Necessary

1 Table 1 is based on the book Ivanova S. The art of recruiting: How to rate a person in an hour. - M .: Alpina Business Books, 2004 .-- P. 15.

1. Creation of profiles of the success of positions (possibly within the framework of job descriptions, requirements for positions and vacancies) - standards.
2. Description of target levels of development of competencies (using points or scales) in connection with the development and objectives of the company, as well as the individual development of employees.
3. Setting achievable goals and defining a set of developmental actions: internship, training, etc. Schedule subtasks to achieve the target level of competence development, for example, “become more influential”: be able to attract attention, be assertive, substantiate ideas, actively listen, gain support, encourage others to action, negotiate.

7. Identification of indicators of achievement of the level (to enlist support from the subtask "become more influential": to achieve the support of all members of the board of directors).

An example of a level (scale) representation of a competence (scheduling the levels of one of the key competencies of the Leadership block in the Managerial competence block) can be found in Table. 2.

table 2. Leadership in anticipating the future, inspiring employees, strategic planning (as a “lookout” function) for evaluating top managers.

Level	Managerial competence
	Creates the future of the company. Develops and implements useful guidelines for employee engagement in effective planning for the future. Systematically and continuously evaluates the effectiveness of these standards and employee participation
	He actively participates in the creation of the future of the company. Polyvolume demonstrates the ability to create and articulate a vision of the future of the organization. Involves others in the process of forming a picture of the future. Strengthens faith in this future through behavior and demonstrated values ​​(by example)
	Able to assess the importance of developing a vision of the future for the company, participates in the development of ways to achieve it as free time becomes available or receiving direct instructions from shareholders
Fourth	Almost does not think about ways to achieve a picture of the future, is preoccupied with everyday affairs
	Uses rumors, “conjectures what is not,” not sure about the future, fixated on routine activities, drowning in everyday affairs, psychologically attached to them

The principles of identifying key competencies, drafting performance standards and customer service are best "seen" through the process of grading employees.

Step-by-step process of grading and standardization of work of employees

1. Allocation of grades (large groups of employees, similar in managerial status, powers and, consequently, the level of payment) and within them categories of employees.

2. Allocation and description of the basic blocks of competencies or criteria for assessing employees. For example, management skills, sales skills, professional and specialized knowledge, personal qualities, etc.

3. Prescribing competencies within the basic blocks of competencies for the entire range of categories of employees in all divisions of the company. For example, in order to describe the block of "managerial skills", it is necessary to answer the question: what managerial skills are fundamentally necessary for various categories of employees? Ability to conduct meetings (can be broken down in more detail by meeting skills), the ability to write a business plan (can be written in more detail - topics, volumes, tasks, etc.), etc. dr.

4. Allocation of key (most significant) and secondary competencies for different categories of employees and depending on the specifics of the work of specific departments and positions. For example, for call-center operators, external data will be of minimal importance, and communication skills (they are signed in detail), the speed of printing on a PC and the amount of operational, that is, short-term memory, the speed of switching attention and personal "non-irritation" will be of maximum importance.

If necessary, assignment of various weighted (index) values ​​to key and secondary competencies according to blocks of basic competencies and within basic blocks of competencies. Blocks of basic competencies are indexed relative to each other by different weights assigned to them. This allows you to highlight the main thing in the employee's activities, as well as to come to a comparative accounting of the effectiveness, usefulness of employees in different departments.

Some employees can be compared with others, as well as with point standards for compliance with a position, category across the holding or division, since each employee in the certification process gains a certain total number of points.

6. Each level of development of an individual competence within the basic block of competencies and, if necessary, this entire basic block is assigned its own point value (for example, from 1 to 5), which is then verbally described in detail as a rank or standard of performance. When describing performance standards, depending on the need, other approaches can be applied, in addition to describing competencies: personal and professional qualities, skills, knowledge and the level of their development:

■ process requirements - a description of business processes or algorithms of activity, or interaction with employees and departments;

■ requirements for the quality of work;

■ accounting of quantitative (volume of work done and (or) commodity, assortment and economic indicators, etc.) and time indicators of achievements (terms), indicators of labor productivity;

■ taking into account innovations, internal corporate, internal subdivision and external image consequences of the employee's activities.

7. Further, in addition to being used in attestation, work performance standards find their rightful place in job descriptions, annexes to them, requirements for positions and vacancies, descriptions of employee categories and other personnel and system-wide documents.

If they are already registered, the preparation of personnel certification is greatly simplified.

Stages of creating work performance standards, which should be tied to positions and jobs.

1. Allocation of general (detailed list or specific competencies for the organization as a whole) competencies of the organization's employees.

1. Allocation of key competencies for employees of a certain type and level. For example, for all warehouse employees and managers of a certain level.
   1. Granting competencies with weight values, if necessary.
   2. Description of reference levels of work performance for each key competency, indicator, parameter) \ ', criterion at specific workplaces or for typical positions - creating standards of work performance, customer service for groups of employees, a specific category of employees, etc.

The following criteria are applied to assess the success of the employee, the so-called digital standard:

"1" - initial level (unsatisfactory);

"2" - below the required level;

"3" - quite satisfies (average level) - the standard for the position;

"4" - better than average;

"5" - exceeds expectations.

(Attention is primarily drawn to extreme values ​​- "risk zones" due to obvious non-compliance or increased compliance. - Note. auth.)

In determining level reference Behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS) are used, which combine rating and descriptive methods. The employee is assessed by the manager from the point of view of compliance of his behavior with predetermined scale behavioral values ​​(as necessary, as not necessary). If this technique is converted into a test, then the employees themselves can evaluate themselves. If the test is "open" for the employee, then the methodology is already a self-study aid.

A customer focus assessment might look like this:

■ an employee can ignore a waiting client if he thinks that he is not promising;

■ spends with the client as much time as necessary, additionally advises the client by phone and e-noah mail;

T may refuse to consult a client if he does not have the necessary information;

■ perceives an irritated client as a natural phenomenon, calmly and respectfully works with that;

and in the absence of the necessary knowledge, the independent receives thembut also uses in his work;

■ makes fair remarks to the client if the client is annoyed. (Correct choices are in italics .-- Note. auth.)

The principles of client-orientation can otherwise be called a manifestation of "teamwork" in relation to the client (client— part of the businessfamilies, member of our team) and the ideological basis for the development of service standards.

Table 3 shows an example of endowing the criteria with different weights, based on expert assessments of the importance of a particular criterion for the successful operation.

table 3. Assessment of an employee using the rating method and highlighting the weighting components of the assessment criteria (coefficients)

	Assessment criterion, competence	Specific gravity (coefficient)	Points	Final grade, in points
	Execution speed, performance			3 × 4 = 12
	Appearance
	Discipline, presence in the workplace
	Communication skills within the team (support of team spirit)
	Communication with external agents
The sum of points for significant criteria: 24
Total points for secondary criteria: 6
Overall final score 30 (for comparison with other operators)

Note. Key, most significant evaluation criteria are highlighted in italics. According to them, a comparison of this employee with others or with a score standard of compliance is carried out.

In the above table, there are three key assessment dimensions in italics. They are most significant. According to them, first of all, one can judge the suitability of a specialist, comparing him with other employees or with a point standard of conformity.

The point standard of compliance is adopted in advance. It may not be lower than any certain amount of points for significant (key) criteria or the overall final score, etc.

The total final score is equal to the sum of the scores according to the criteria, multiplied in advance by the specific weights (coefficients).

The norm is when 70-80% of employees meet the specified criteria for success. The remaining employees are divided approximately equally: below and above the bar of the given criteria. If an employee is 30% higher than the set standards, then you need to think about transferring him to a higher position or expanding his powers. For those whose indicator is below the bar of the specified criteria or standards, you need to do the opposite.

In order to combine at the semantic level numerous terminological and practical differences in approaches to the allocation and use of competencies for personnel assessment, we will create a simple sequence of "dependencies".

■ For a person to be able to make a clay pot (for example, a hotel claims to be original and uses such pots as free souvenirs for guests), he needs to understand his mentor, have a certain natural skill and desire (motivation), take a required volume). Then he will have the necessary knowledge of a practical and theoretical nature - he will be competent.

■ In order for us to hire him, we need to find out whether he wants to work with us and in this direction further, what is the motivation (to determine the nature and duration of possible relationships, ways of control and motivation), whether he has lost his work skills and communication skills, while did not work.

How to start highlighting key competencies? From the analysis of the content of the work in relation to the main business function of the organization.

1. Analysis of the work of the entire sales apparatus and the coordination of the responsibilities of all employees, as well as determining how all jobs are related to each other.

1. Selection of specific jobs for analysis.
   1. Collecting the necessary information by observing the actual progress of employees, interviewing people at workplaces and interviewing employees using questionnaires "1.

1 Fatrell C. Sales management. - SPb .: Neva, 2004 .-- P. 220.

Based on the analysis of the content of the work, many important documents can be drawn up:

■ a list of key and additional competencies, the requirement of standards;

■ job description, qualifications, etc.

Highlighting key competencies and other assessment criteria

Recruitment agency "For family reasons", Moscow. Main business function: connecting qualified personnel with worthy parents and children. Mission: the best tutors and nannies for the active personal development of children. Competitive advantage: really high-quality staff, real terms of selection, verification of the proposed employees.

The agent's work (main actions, functions) to connect the two partner parties is to interview nannies and tutors, assess their personal and professional capabilities, maintain databases on a PC, clarify the needs of parents and children, introduce the parties to each other, conclude agreements of mutual obligations , tracking the success of employees in families, participating in solving difficult situations.

Based on all the above information, key computerstendencies for employees will be:

■ discernment (understanding people);

■ ability to conduct multi-stage negotiations (in person and by phone);

■ sociability and natural goodwill;

■ analytical skills to make accurate calculations;

■ self-organization and organization of time;

■ ability to work in a team.

These formulations are understandable for all employees of the recruiting agency without summing up the scientific base - at the level of a common language of communication.

Additional qualities: excellent memory for events and faces, skills in resolving conflict situations.

Additional requirements: own successful experience in working with children and adolescents as a nanny, tutor, teacher and psychologist; natural inclination to work with children - love for children, commitment to family values; good physical health.

Special requirements: high speed of printing on a PC, good switching of attention, knowledge of the basics of drafting contracts for the provision of services.

It can be seen that the key competencies flowed smoothly and additional requirements, etc. This once again emphasizes that these competencies are key, but not unique. The secret is that the properties of our attention and memory force us to resort to various kinds of structuring, because there is no way to immediately cover the list of 40 required items. But this does not mean that the approach to identifying key competencies is random and temporary. On the contrary, it is quite natural: first we single out the main thing, then that without which the main thing will not make sense, and finally - the desirable. (See the section on drafting a staffing proposal and other sections.)

But that's not all, we can add some personal qualities and characteristics to the above assessment criteria.

C. Fatrell in the book already mentioned above gives an even more classical approach, historically and logically preceding the above, namely, qualification requirements.

“Most sales managers define the next minimum required salesperson characteristics.

1. Intelligence is the mental ability required to perform tasks of a high level of difficulty.
2. Education - graduation from an educational institution with above average academic performance.
3. Strong personality - focus on achieving success, self-confidence, initiative, a positive outlook on life, tact, maturity, and having a ready-made realistic career advancement plan.

4. Experience - doing your job diligently, going beyond simple job responsibilities; if a person has just recently completed his studies, then his active participation in the activities of educational organizations and the development of projects is above the average level.

1. Physical data - creating a good first impression, good looks, neat clothes and good physical shape "\ ''.

1 Fatrell C. Sales management. - SPb .: Neva, 2004 .-- P. 222.

Why can the Western society afford such high standards in relation to a seemingly ordinary sales agent, but we in Russia cannot? This will become possible when we pay the worthy really worthy. There are clearly not enough of them. As a result of improper upbringing with threats and intimidation, our children do not properly develop logical abilities, the ability to think independently and the desire for all-round development of the personality is lost, lack of will is formed, namely, the will and a very strong desire to achieve the goals set are distinguished by a leader * and any successful person. Thus, for the seller in the service sector, particular importance will be have a developed logical ability in a harmonious combination and with the development of imaginative, sensual, sensory (right-hemispheric thinking) plus his volitional qualities in achieving goals and the ability to convince yourself and others. Appendix 9 provides a simple but very effective test for determining the thinking patterns of others and oneself. It can also be used as a test for understanding one's own personality, if you guess, without using a key, which of the three questions in each paragraph relates to a particular style of learning and thinking: right-brain, left-brain, or equal-hemisphere.

Before conducting more complex tests (multifactorial, multimodal), evaluate yourself and others on this simple and forgotten: is your employee, the applicant more process oriented (right brain) or result (left brain) or is he a mixed type? Different types of activity require different people: some concentrate on details, missing the main thing, others, seeing the main thing, forget about the specifics.

This test does not measure the level of personality development, even if it turns out that the tested personality is equal hemispheric, this requires a separate conversation. The test can be used to train in the construction of compact questionnaires, which are used for rapid assessment of someone. 10-15 questions followed by a discussion of the selected answers, a few questions from a standard structured interview - and you already understand how a person will build his strategy for achieving goals, how he will process information, what he wants to achieve, what is his map of ideas about work, etc. ...

There are only three factors in the test, and, therefore, you can quite easily understand the reality behind the three psychological directions of the questions: left hemispheric information processing and the way to achieve the goal, right hemispheric, mixed. If you are lucky "through the prism of the test", you will see an image, a model of a developed, integrated personality, who thinks well logically and figuratively, with well-formed analytical and intuitive capabilities, feels good both in the process of work and in the time pressure of achieving business goals.

Take your time to use the key to the test. Sort the answers yourself and only then compare with the key - and you will have the opportunity to start a career as a psychodiagnostician, if you have not started it yet. In this regard, we present a quote from an excellent book that can be recommended as a rite of initiation into professional psychodiagnostics.

“With a correct approach to the development and interpretation of multidimensional test questionnaires, the following psychometric maxim must be taken into account: it is possible (with more or less difficulty) to come up with a question (and therefore a lot of questions) that, in a multidimensional matrix analysis, will give a vector passing in the vicinity of any a predetermined point of the multidimensional space of traits. It follows from this that any locus of the space of traits (including a sparse one - one that does not give a grouping of items on a given specific list, does not give a scale) can be filled with a group of correlated questions and a new scale can be obtained that measures something in between what the questionnaire measured. in its original version.

The choice of one or another system of scales (features) is largely determined by the developer's intention or the initial list that he has at his disposal ”1.

As a result of the above considerations, some “corrective touches” are added to other criteria for assessing employees of the recruiting agency “For family reasons”, since the previously identified key competencies are a consequence of these qualities and personality traits: strong will, development of logicalabilities and imaginative-sensory thinking(sensual, emotional intelligence).

Efremov V.S., Khanykov I.A.

The history of the development of economic systems has known several revolutions, and we are now entering one of them. The new era is called differently, they talk about new technologies and methods of management. Never before has the task of finding a competitive advantage been so acute - the very concept of hypercompetition speaks of an increase in the dynamism of competitive relations. It became clear that the competitive advantage of the near future is knowledge and information. But how to identify this resource, how to develop and use it? How is the system of strategic planning and management changing? How applicable are the existing methods of analysis, what approaches can be defined for their development and the formation of new ones?

Economists are accustomed to thinking in such categories as economic activity and an economic entity, understanding the latter as an organization, that is, a form of collective purposeful activity of individuals. At the same time, we traditionally recognize the presence of a kind of “new quality” for an organization, which is expressed in the disidentification of the organization itself from the people who make it up, and the awareness of it as a new independent entity, the nature of which lies in understanding the essence of the synergy of the elements of the constructed structure.

The most important goals of the existence of any organization are the continuity (non-termination) of activities and progressive development. For a commercial organization, the third most important goal is to obtain economic benefits or commercial effect. Understanding the strategy as "a way of action that determines a certain and stable line of behavior of the organization over a sufficiently long historical interval", a commercial organization operating in a competitive environment sets itself as the main task of ensuring a sustainable competitive advantage, the operation of which will be the key to a long-term and effective existence and development of the organization.

It is the task of finding the basis for such a competitive advantage that determined the separation of strategic management from the general science of management, which is attributed to the mid-50s of the last century.

Relatively low rates of environmental change, limited information and access to discretely distributed factors - natural resources, new needs and markets, cheap labor and capital, new technologies, etc. - set among the most important tasks the most complete analysis of the external environment, forecasting its changes and designing the organization in the best (in terms of efficiency) compliance with it.

In these conditions, the so-called "school of planning" developed. She used a sophisticated analytical and analytical apparatus for long-term forecasting and planning in order to develop a strategy that would allow the company to achieve maximum correspondence of internal parameters to environmental variables and, thus, gain a competitive advantage. This is the so-called “prescriptive” approach to the formation of a long-term strategic plan, largely dependent on the representativeness, consistency, homogeneity, comparability and accuracy of the data used in the calculations.

The expansion of organizations in the 60s led to increased pressure on organizations from the external environment. The variability of external factors has reached the point above which adaptation to it by changing the original plan is simply ineffective. Then it was noted that the set of "small" decisions that the organization constantly makes in accordance with external and internal conditions, form a reflexive method of "trial and error" a certain way of action, which is a strategy. This approach has been called "logical incrementalism". Among the main criticisms - insufficient attention to rational goal-setting by managers, possible lag in the pace of "learning" of the organization from the dynamics of changes in the external environment, too high a cost of the method of "trial and error".

Further growth of organizations based on diversification, capitalization of economies of scale in the context of mass marketing and global demand was based on portfolio planning models. However, the macroeconomic instability of the 70s (oil crisis, rise in interest rates, etc.), which revealed the imperfection of the existing methods of long-term forecasting and their unacceptability in an unstable environment, contributed to discrediting these models.

Further development of strategic analysis models was based not on long-term forecasting, but on the analysis of competition and strategic positioning. The strategy formation process was now guided by factors not previously considered in strategic analysis, such as the size of the company and the number of competitors. This made it possible to theoretically substantiate the receipt and use of a competitive advantage due to the correct positioning of the company in an attractive industry. Among the shortcomings of these approaches were noted the static nature of the analysis, excessive attention to the organization's environment, and not to its internal abilities; to competition, but not cooperation.

Thus, it can be noted that the development of schools of strategic management followed the changes taking place in the environment, which affected both the productive forces of society and, therefore, the factors of competitive advantages, and the very essence of competitive relations - that is, such development itself took place in accordance with A "reflective" model.

Therefore, today the relevance of a new look at strategic analysis has become especially evident as a result of new fundamental changes in the environment, entailing a change in the entire philosophy of business, one of the names of which is globalization.

The wide availability of resources made it impossible to obtain a competitive advantage in operating the external business environment. The strengthening of the interpenetration and interdependence of the economies of developed and developing countries (in any combination) with the naked eye is noticeable not only in trade, but also, more importantly, in the balance of payments as a whole - the markets of not only goods, but also of factors of production have become international. International specialization of labor and the distribution of production and technological chains and, as a result, the creation of a global mechanism for the formation of use value contribute to the further unification of business and politics.

The single global capital market, resulting from the gradual consolidation of national trading platforms, in which there is less and less opportunity for direct arbitration, makes everyone hostage to events on the other side of the globe. Thus, the task of monitoring the environment, which is necessary for drawing up strategic plans based on methodologies of prescription, reflection and strategic positioning, has become much more complicated - all companies in the world operating in similar, related and even in different markets, with or without similar experience, can and should be viewed as potential competitors. The opening of national markets allows them to enter into direct competitive interaction at any time.

A full range of global opportunities are also available, but in a changing environment, organizations have nowhere to anchor. The ideology of analyzing the environment, competitors, predicting its changes and the dynamics of the conjuncture and, on the basis of the data obtained, building an organization to extract a commercial effect from the use of opportunities finally loses its relevance. Therefore, more and more often, in search of a competitive advantage, organizations are looking inward, trying to identify those abilities around which they can build a business space. Models of such analysis and planning have been developed by the school of resources, abilities and competencies for more than 10 years.

The relevance of the very formulation of such a task is due to the fact that the classical schools of strategic planning are not able to explain the existence of some business phenomena of the 90s. For example, Wal-Mart has achieved twice the profitability of its competitors over the past twenty years; the profit of the American airline Soutwest Airlines showed a steady upward trend, while the losses for the entire industry as a whole amounted to about $ 10 billion (from 1990 to 1993); Nucor Steel stock rose steadily throughout the 1980s and 1990s, while the value of most steel producers either stabilized or fell. All three listed companies operate in traditional sectors of the economy in a mature market and at the same time were able, apparently, due to the development of internal factors, to take leading positions. The tasks of identifying and using such factors are reflected in the development of resource-oriented strategic analysis and management, which have become an incubator of ideas about competencies and abilities.

It is noted that the disadvantage of the new school of strategy - an all-encompassing but removable one - is a relatively young age, which is the reason for the underdevelopment of analytical models. As will be demonstrated below, modern discussions between its followers do not go beyond the conceptual and terminological apparatus and general concepts, as well as only approaches to the formation of the methodology of analysis. It is believed that the further development of the new school of strategy will solve this problem, in particular, an attempt will be made below to present some ideas for filling the methodological vacuum.

Further, it is often noted that when analyzing the internal parameters of an organization, the importance of the environment in the formation of a competitive advantage is underestimated. Below we will demonstrate the inconsistency of such remarks, at least in relation to some works in this area.

Before the history of the development of this direction of strategic analysis and management is presented, it is important to mention that some authors note the emergence of the fifth school. Due to the new realities of post-industrialism in industrialized countries, this school relies not on competition, but on cooperation as the basis for the existence, development and prosperity of business. At the same time, the most effective organization of such cooperation between competitors is based precisely on the complementarity of the abilities and competencies of the participating organizations. Therefore, it is especially important to learn how to define competencies and abilities in order to achieve their optimal configuration within the framework of the partnership or alliance being created.

Historically, in the literature, various terms are used interchangeably to refer to similar concepts - strengths, skills, competencies, abilities, organizational knowledge, invisible assets. Kenneth Andrews, for example, uses the term “distinctive competence” to define the type of activity in which an organization performs best. Prahalad and Hamel, in their foundational work, which predominantly determined the further development of this school of strategic management, cite the term "core competence" to denote a set of skills and technologies, a mass of unsystematic knowledge and experience accumulated by an organization, which becomes the basis for successful competition. ... Some writings have used the term “ability” or “key ability” to denote the special dynamics of learning processes to emphasize the importance of “collective company learning”. All of these terms are similar in that they denote the unique abilities, knowledge, well-established behavioral models of the organization, which are a potential source of its competitive advantage.

In fact, the idea that the internal capabilities of an organization are an important component of competitive advantage is not new in itself and can be found in the early works of the “prescriptive” school.

In 1957, writing Leadership in administration, Selznick was one of the first authors to note that it is the internal factors of an organization, such as talent or experience, that determine the likelihood of success in policy implementation. Asserting that in business, the past defines the present, namely that in the course of its development, the organization develops a certain "character", which he called "distinctive competence", manifested through a number of "special abilities and limitations" contained in the "evolving institutional system influencing the competence of the organization to form and adhere to certain strategies. " At the same time, such a distinctive competence, which can be used in one type of activity, can play a deterrent role and become “distinctive incompetence” in another; the art of management, according to the author, lies precisely in the ability to form the correct opinion about the organization's compliance with its task and strategy. As an example, we consider a custom boat and yacht workshop whose management decides to start mass production of low-cost high-speed boats. The venture failed because the history and culture of the organization did not match the new challenges. Thus, Selznick concludes, the impact of the company's internal social factors is as important, if not more important, than the state of the market.

This conclusion had a significant impact on many works on business strategy in those years, in which they began to emphasize that the development of strategy and the search for new opportunities is unthinkable without the internal ability to implement the decisions made, or at least the likelihood of acquiring them. Thus, in his book Corporate Strategy, Ansoff offers a template list of skills and resources, the so-called “competency grid”, which should be regularly drawn up both for the company itself and for competitors in order to conduct a comparative analysis and identifying the relative strength of competitors in a given market. This analytical model helped inform strategic decisions, especially regarding business diversification.

A deeper search for opportunities to link organizational capabilities and external environmental factors was realized in the concept of deriving competitive advantage from the correlation of distinctive competencies and existing opportunities, described in the works of such famous authors of the Harvard Business School as Lernd, Christensen, Andrews and Guth (Learned, Christensen, Andrews and Guth) in the 1960s. A number of their publications have led to the well-known model of strategic analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the company, external opportunities and threats.

In the early 1970s, developments in this area of ​​strategic management slowed down markedly. One of the reasons for this was the complexity of the practical assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the company. In his study of the capabilities of companies, Stevenson comes to the conclusion that among managers of the same company there is rarely a consensus about their own strengths and weaknesses, in particular, managers at a higher level of the hierarchy tend to overestimate strengths, while managers middle and lower management are often more pessimistic, and the rare methods of identifying strengths and weaknesses are based on expert judgment.

On the other hand, the very foundations of strategic planning were questioned. In 1985, the Harvard Business Review published a publication by Robert Hayes, in which the author severely criticized the then practice of strategy development, which began with goal-setting, and only then solved the problem of determining how to achieve goals. “One should not develop plans and then look for ways to implement them; instead, it is necessary to build capabilities and facilitate plans for their use. ”

Further, in his book Mobilizing Invisible Assets, Hiroyuko Itami also emphasized the need to build on company strengths, or so-called “invisible assets,” which have been identified as attributes of a company that have the potential to generate profit. but not shown on the balance sheet, such as: reputation, brand, technical knowledge and experience, customer loyalty. The author emphasized the durable nature of the source of competitive advantage generated by invisible assets.

Thus, for these authors, strategic analysis inevitably began with a consideration of the company's internal capabilities and resources. This approach is more fully reflected in the development of the resource school of strategic planning and management, which began in the 80s.

The central theoretical prerequisite for this group of authors was the concept of organization as an interconnection of specialized resources that are used to achieve a privileged position in the market, that is, a sustainable competitive advantage. The development of a company, in this case, is an ongoing process of acquiring, developing and expanding its resource capabilities, and since the course of development of each company is strictly individual, the resources available to companies are different. The strategy of each company, therefore, is formed with the aim of using exactly the set of resources that is available. Thus, the history of the organization, the accumulated experience, character and culture, strengths and abilities are all factors that influence the formation of a strategy and determine its success.

This concept is applicable both at the level of strategic business units and at the level of corporate governance. At the level of individual business units, competitive advantage is derived from the unique resources and capabilities inherent in the company that cannot be easily copied or acquired by competitors. At the corporate level, the bundles of resources and capabilities can be used in various activities to produce a range of end products. Thus, the success of a corporate strategy is based on the accumulation of resources and abilities and their exploitation in accordance with market conditions in the mode of creating business units.

As a result, the company's attributes, capabilities and resources become a more reliable anchor for both business and corporate strategy than the volatile variables of the external environment and market demands.

In general, the development strategy of the organization should follow in line with the development of business "as a way of expedient human activity aimed at obtaining certain commercial benefits through the creation and implementation of consumer values ​​demanded by society." Since the systemic function of business is to transform the existing in the environment opportunities to meet social needs in order to obtain a commercial effect, the development of an organization should be based on the implementation of the possibilities of forming its functional usefulness in the macrocosm.

The very existence of the organization is due to the demand for its function in the macrocosm. However, it is possible to understand and evaluate this function only by presenting the organization as an element of the macrosystem. From these positions, the tectocentric paradigm of classical theories of strategic planning, which asserts the importance of preserving the organization as a form of expedient collective human activity, ceases to meet the challenges facing modern theorists and practitioners of management.

Despite the complexity of the internal structure of a modern organization, its survival is associated not with the preservation of the established order, but with the implementation and development of a systemic function, since "not every order is creative, but only that which is expedient." To separate the strategic issues of the existence and development of an organization, it is advisable to introduce the concept of a business system, which is a special "system of relations within the organization, in its external environment, in the industry and in the market." The introduction of the concept of a business system and its use along with the concept of an economic system forces to shift the analytical focus. If the goal and criterion of the efficiency of the functioning of the economic system is the satisfaction of social needs through the processes of production, distribution, exchange and consumption of material goods, then the purpose of the business system is to obtain a commercial effect. And the satisfaction of social needs is only a means, but not a goal, and it is from these positions in the business system that the same processes of production, distribution, exchange and consumption of material goods are considered.

Generally speaking, a business system can unite several organizations, insofar as the activities of each individual organization will fit into the execution logic and be an element of the system function of the entire business in the context of the business system. It becomes clear that in this case, it becomes impractical to analyze the environment of each individual organization, because the emphasis is shifting towards the environment of the entire business system as a whole, that is, the business space. The business space model is shown in Fig. one.

Rice. 1. Business space model

For the purposes of further development of the methodology in this article, we will assume that the boundaries of the business system coincide with the boundaries of the organization, that is, that a separate organization is the bearer of the systemic function of the business. The issues of interorganizational cooperation within the framework of the business system, the problems of integrating use value chains are not taken out of the scope by accident: the basic tones will lay the foundation for the functional analysis of the business system, which, as it becomes more complex, will only acquire new projections, acquiring analytical models, the rules for constructing which and are offered below.

The content of the organization's function and the effectiveness of its implementation is laid down in the internal conditions of the organization, which are a set of production and technological, financial and economic, sociocultural, organizational, technical and administrative conditions. The modeling of internal conditions lays the fundamental basis for further analysis. Together with external conditions (economic, political and legal, sociocultural, technological), they determine the set of resources available to the organization, as well as the form and content of its business processes, as a result of which a product appears that satisfies social needs (see Fig. 2).

Rice. 2. Internal conditions of the organization

The classification of resources is based on a qualitative criterion. Allocate financial, physical, human and organizational resources. Financial resources include equity and borrowed capital, retained earnings; physical resources include fixed assets: movable and immovable property, buildings and structures, machinery and equipment; human resources are made up of knowledge, experience, qualifications, the ability to make judgments and take risks; organizational resources are not only history, reputation, established relationships, trust, but also internal organizational culture.

We also propose to use the term “capabilities” to denote business processes. Business process modeling is an independent branch of management science, the methods of which are largely borrowed from systems for the design of production plants. The business process can be visualized as a kind of procedure, the organization and management of which with the involvement of the necessary resources allows you to obtain a certain result from the original object (see, for example, Fig. 3).

A business process, structurally, can have an unlimited number of attachments. It is easy to see that at the highest level of abstraction, this model reflects the system function of the business system as a whole. Increasing detail logically leads to elementary indivisible work. “Ability” can be called a business process of any level. The semantic content of the concept of "ability", which has developed in the schools of strategic planning, does not contradict the understanding of it as a business process. At the same time, the proposed identification allows us to use for the purposes of this analysis the widest set of existing tools for modeling the organization and business processes.

Rice. 3. Informational representation of the business process

The organization, therefore, has a large number of abilities, the classification of which becomes a separate task. To simplify this task, you can use the business process classification model proposed by the American Quality Association (see Figure 4). In accordance with this classification, all business processes are either functional, that is, directly forming the content of the business system and procedures for performing their function, or structural, that is, aimed at maintaining and developing the infrastructure of the business system, ensuring its actual existence as such.

As a result of sequential-parallel execution of business processes (capabilities) that make up a certain way of building a business system, the opportunities that exist in the business space are used to meet existing needs. It is the knowledge of how to deploy, organize and manage such a system and its elements that constitutes "competencies" (Fig. 2).

Rice. 4. Classification of business processes

In general, the concept of "competence" can have two meanings: 1) the terms of reference provided by law, charter or other act to a specific body or official, and 2) knowledge, experience in a particular area. On the basis of the second basic meaning, we define that “competence” is a special property of an information resource containing experience, knowledge and skills about the way of organizing and managing resources and business processes (organizational capabilities) to achieve the set goals, the carrier of which individually or collectively are the workers. Competences are also inherent in a hierarchy in accordance with the hierarchy of abilities and the priority of the resources under their "control".

Using the capabilities of the organization leads to the addition of a certain share of use value to the final product, which appears as a result of their organized interaction. In general, business as a whole can be represented as a process of production of use values, as a sequence of consumption of some use values ​​acquired in the market of suppliers, their transformation and the addition of new use values ​​with the subsequent realization in society of the final use values ​​clothed in a product shell. It is the “interface” of the product that allows the internal capabilities of the business system to be perceived by the consumer (see Figure 5).

Rice. 5. The structure of the product as a market offer of the company

Competencies, in turn, as a kind of internal knowledge, are inaccessible to the direct perception of the consumer, as, indeed, according to the research results, and the managers themselves. They find an indirect expression in the use value of the final product through the efficiency of the use of abilities and resources in a production and organizational system with a certain configuration.

The key is a higher-order competence that participates in the creation of the greatest use value, which is collective knowledge that allows you to organize and manage the use of other competencies and abilities, thereby creating additional use value.

It is the complementarity of the use value created by the key competence that reveals its synergistic nature (see Fig. 6). At the same time, existing practically outside the dimensions of capabilities and products, the core competence is not derived from the needs of the market - being to some extent universal, it is able to provide access (be the “key”) to a number of markets that can be very different from each other.

Such properties of key competence are noted by Praalad and Hamel. Literally, they wrote that “core competency has three main properties: ... firstly, it provides potential access to a wide range of markets, secondly, it adds significant use value to the final product, perceived by the buyer, and thirdly, large the cost and effort to replicate a competitor's core competency. " Other characteristics of core competence have been proposed by various authors. To date, eight most important properties have been identified.

Rice. 6. Core competency model

Above all, core competencies are inherently complex. It is a derivative of a set of resources and abilities, it is difficult to identify it, it is invisible. A specific core competency can be used only within the framework of the business system in which it exists, that is, it is inherent only in a given configuration of resources and capabilities. Competence, unlike other assets in an organization, does not wear out from use. On the contrary, a number of authors noted this as the main strategic advantage that arises in the formation of a competitive advantage based on competence, it develops, its quality increases, the efficiency of its use increases significantly - this is the most wear-resistant and long-term asset of the organization. At the same time, the core competence is inimitable, that is, it cannot be directly copied or used by competitors, and it is irreplaceable - it cannot be replaced by another competence. The organization's core competencies are often better developed from the outset than competitors and are customer-focused (by definition). And, finally, since the core competence includes a set of other competencies and abilities, it can be used to strengthen them mutually.

The key competence lies at the intersection of internal business conditions and consumer preferences, this is the knowledge on the use of which the maximum share of use value depends. It is the increase in added use value due to the development of key competencies that is the basis for obtaining a sustainable competitive advantage. Higher use value of a product can be used to implement two basic types of strategies - differentiation and cost leadership. This suggests that key competence provides opportunities for obtaining in the competitive struggle both a qualitative advantage, attributable to the properties of the product, and quantitative, attributable to a stronger financial position. Further, this returns to the conclusion voiced earlier, about the universal nature of the key competence, which makes it possible to manifest it in the consumer and industrial markets.

Postponing this conclusion for later consideration, we note that in this case, the analysis of competencies should cover the qualitative and quantitative aspects, that is, assess not only consumer and market advantages, but also the financial parameters of development along the path of key competence, i.e. as a first approximation, the share of additional costs and profits.

The purpose of the strategic analysis of key competencies is to offer a new basis for the formation of a strategic plan, the implementation of which leads to the emergence (maintenance) of a sustainable competitive advantage, as well as to assess the potential of this plan from the standpoint of the financial condition and capabilities of the organization or the business system as a whole.

The goal is broken down into several tasks. First of all, it is necessary to model the internal structure of relationships and interdependencies between the existing resources, abilities and competencies inherent in the business system. In general, this is done as follows.

In the process of modeling the business processes of an organization, the abilities and resources involved in creating a product and their contribution to its final use value are identified. The qualitative structure of the use value in the context of the importance and priority for the consumer of the perceived properties of the product and the accompanying sale of the service are determined in the process of direct survey. The initial identification of a set of competencies occurs in the process of familiarization with the functioning of the business system and is built by the method of expert assessment in cooperation with the management personnel.

It is important to determine which business processes (capabilities) create the maximum share of the customer's priority share of use value and which resources are involved in this. From the ranks of operationally and market-related combinations of abilities and resources ranked in this way, the hierarchy of existing competencies is indirectly distinguished and, accordingly, the key competence is identified as organizing and managing the creation of the maximum share of "quality" use value corresponding to most of the needs.

In the case when the product does not occupy a leading position in the market, and the task is not to accurately identify the existing key competence, but rather to determine the target competence that needs to be acquired from the outside or developed within the business system, then based on the results of the analysis of the range of existing offers of competing market offers of various companies, as well as consumer preferences, a hypothetical structure and hierarchy of resources and abilities required to meet the target market is built (to reduce the cost and time for adaptation based on the existing structure as much as possible), and target competencies and key competencies are determined.

Technically, the task of performing this kind of "counter" analysis is solved by sequentially filling a set of relational matrices with secondary data obtained as a result of analyzing the primary information and obtaining results on synthetic matrices. Therefore, to carry out this stage of work, an appropriate material and technical base of informatization means is required, consisting of standard hardware and an original software product. In the cells of the matrices, the degrees of dependence or strength of the control vectors between the abilities, resources and competencies of the organization are sequentially put down, therefore, the key to building the software is the mathematical apparatus for converting the corresponding analytical coefficients into integral synthetic indicators.

The results of this stage of the analysis are the basic hierarchy of competencies (existing and target) with an indication for each required degree of development and involvement in the management process.

Based on this information, already at the second stage, an action plan is directly formed, the financial parameters of which are calculated based on the necessary costs for the formation or reorganization of the base of competencies, abilities and resources and an increase in incoming financial flows predicted as a result of expanding the market share by the size of the target segment. having a set of needs identified in the early stages of the analysis. This stage of the formation of a strategic plan is carried out by general methods, widely covered in the literature, and therefore is not included in the problem area of ​​this article.

The sequence of strategic planning based on the key competencies of the organization, described earlier, is shown in enlarged form in Fig. 7.

Rice. 7. General framework for the analysis of key competencies

Strategic planning is based on the results of ranking the competencies of the organization, carried out in accordance with the external and internal conditions of the business system. That is, strategic goal-setting in accordance with the logic of the school of competencies becomes a derivative of the existing competencies.

Taking the characteristics given to this phenomenon by Praalad and Hamel as the basis for the definition of the organization's “core competence”, we can conclude that the core competencies should include those competencies that enclose most of the properties of goods and services produced by the organization (see Fig. 8).

Rice. 8 Key competencies as the source of the largest number and variety of properties of goods and services

Therefore, among the entire set of organizational competencies under consideration, the key ones will differ from the non-key ones by the degree (that is, the number and strength) of the closeness of the properties of goods and services to them.

Competencies are derived from organizational capabilities. Capabilities are mediated by the resources at the disposal of the organization. The required resources are determined by the consumer properties of goods and services.

Thus, the analytical chain is built, shown in Fig. nine:

Rice. 9. Consistency of analysis of key competencies

As an example, the analysis of key competencies was carried out for Forte-IT Co., which develops and implements computer telephony systems based on Dialogic hardware.

In general, computer telephony systems can be characterized as service applications based on the integration of a telephone line and a computer, allowing in a certain way using a computer to process incoming telephone calls. Based on computer telephony technologies, products such as information systems, voice mail, call forwarding, auto attendant, notification systems, remote voting, teleloteries, automation of billing for the use of a communication channel, etc. can be created.

The company offers a wide range of solutions for both telecom operators and corporate clients. The product is a software and hardware complex, which, as a rule, is formed on a turnkey basis and is either transferred to the client (in the case of a corporate order, small and medium-sized systems), or installation services are provided by the company's specialists at the client (telecom operator, large projects) as in a stand-alone form, and in integration with other existing systems.

After delivery, the customer is provided with services for after-sales maintenance of the system during the warranty period, and also, already on a contractual basis, services are provided for scaling and expanding the functionality of the systems.

It should be noted right away that systems for corporate clients have low added value and high unit transaction costs. Such systems are considered as a necessary product for a presence in this market, but this segment is not a target for the company. Thus, the task of the analysis was focused on defining the key competencies of Forte-IT as the basis for strategic planning of an existing business for the production and implementation of computer telephony systems for telecom operators.

Currently, the following product line has been developed for telecom operators, presented in table. one.

For completeness of information about the company's product line, it should be noted that all systems of corporate clients are built on the IntelleScript platform, where, in accordance with the client's requirements for functionality, any computer telephony application can be formed: the solution of interest to the client is formed from the already existing functional blocks.

Table 1
Product line for telecom operators

In general, for each type of application, there are, in principle, two solutions - purely hardware and software and hardware. On the market of hardware solutions there are such giants as AT&T, Ericsson, Motorola, etc. These are, one might say, traditional solutions - systems of a closed architecture and high cost, several times, sometimes more than several orders of magnitude, higher than the cost of software and hardware systems.

The latter - the achievements of modern computer technology - exist in the form of an IBM-compatible computer ("standard" or industrial configuration), a Dialogic computer telephony card and software. The cost of such systems is much lower, the implementation time is reduced, due to the use of boards from one manufacturer, standards are unified, at the same time, due to the use of a software complex, increased requirements are imposed on the fault tolerance of systems, especially at the sites of telecom operators for the provision of paid services.

In the course of a series of interviews with both company employees and representatives of its clients, the main primary requirements for the properties of the company's products were identified and their two-level detailing was performed. The results are presented in table. 2. In the future, this detailed structure of the use value of the company's commercial proposal makes it possible to understand from which internal components and in what proportions the final property of the product, perceived by the consumer, is formed, what abilities, resources and competencies and to what extent are involved in the production of these components, which will help more precisely focus the activities of the strategic plan.

table 2
Revealing the consumer properties of products and the structure of use value

By the method of multivariate comparative analysis, the primary properties were ranked according to the degree of importance for telecom operators. This method allows you to rank a set of factors, each of which cannot be directly quantified. The human brain, as a rule, is not able to make an unambiguous conclusion about the relative importance of more than three to four non-quantitative factors at a time. Therefore, to solve such a problem, a method based on the assessment of a complete set of combinations of two factors is used (see Fig. 10).

In the matrix for comparing the combinations of two factors (Fig. 10), the more important is marked (the assessment is made by an expert method), then it is calculated how many "points" each factor has scored and, in accordance with the estimates obtained, a hierarchy of factors is formed in order of importance: the higher the score , the more important the property is. If several factors gain the same number of points, then their ranking is made in accordance with the initial expert opinion on their importance, marked in the matrix.

The results of such a ranking of the properties of Forte-IT Co. products are shown in Fig. eleven.

At the same time, work was carried out to analyze the internal business conditions, identify the company's resources, abilities and competencies (see the list and description in Fig. 12). The relationship between them was assessed for three groups of paired relationships:

• 1st group- relationships (properties, resources);
• Group 2- relationships (resources, abilities);
• Group 3- relationships (abilities, competencies).

If through X = (x1, x2, x3, ..., xn) designate many properties of goods and services, through Y = (y1, y2, y3, ..., ym)- many resources through Z = (z1, z2, z3, ..., zk)- many abilities, and through C = (c1, c2, c3, ..., cl)- a set of competencies, then the established groups of relations can be specified by matrices, respectively, (XY), (YZ), (ZC).

For the example under consideration with the Forte-IT company, specific relations will be set by the matrices shown in Fig. 13 (arrows show influence vectors, in the cells of the matrix there are quantitative estimates of the degree of influence on a five-point scale). In the part of the matrix (YZ) the degree of involvement of the resource in the execution of the process and, accordingly, the dependence of the level of quality of the ability on a specific resource is indicated. Similarly, at the bottom of the matrix (ZC) the degree of dependence ("controllability") of abilities from each competence identified by the expert method is indicated. Attitude (XY) shows the degree of "implementation" of each resource in individual properties of the product, and, accordingly, the degree of dependence of the properties on the quality of the corresponding resources.

Rice. 10. Form for multivariate comparative analysis

To determine how the properties of goods and services of Forte-IT Co. are related to its competencies, i.e. to obtain the relation (XC), we will sequentially close the relation (XY) on attitude (ZC) using a simple compositional rule. But before we formulate it, we note that each element z is determined by the same element x in different ways, depending on how the element behaves in this case y... In other words, building relationships (XZ) based on relationship (XY) and (YZ), it is necessary to compare how the properties of goods and services are determined by different resources, and resources, in turn, participate in the implementation of the company's capabilities. Thus, the most accurate quantitative assessment of the effectiveness of the influence of a specific ability on the formation of each product property can be obtained by calculating the weighted average of the degree of resource involvement in the implementation of this ability, weighted by the degree of "implementation" of these resources in each specific property of the product.

That is, the compositional rule looks like this:

(1)

The relation obtained using this compositional rule (XZ) characterized by the corresponding matrix (Fig. 14, values ​​are rounded to whole numbers).

Compositional rule (1) is similarly applied to find the closure of the just obtained relation (XZ) on attitude (ZC) and definitions of attitude (XC)(Fig. 15, values ​​are rounded to whole numbers).

Thus, at this stage of the analysis, data was obtained on how the properties of the product depend on the quality of knowledge, skills and experience, collectively or individually available to the company's employees, that is, on competencies. As previously defined, the core competencies are of the highest order, which are most involved in the formation of the use value of the goods and services offered by the company.

Rice. 11. Ranking of properties of products according to the degree of importance

At the same time, it is necessary to take into account that each property of a product (an element of the structure of use value) carries a different weight for the end consumer. That is, to build a hierarchy of competencies, it is necessary to find the weighted average values ​​in the columns of the ratio matrix (XC), weighted according to the hierarchy of requirements for product properties, indicated in Fig. 11, where a lower integral score corresponds to a decrease in the level of the hierarchy of competencies (see Figure 16 for the result).

Rice. 12. Resources, capabilities and competencies of the company

Rice. 13. Three groups of relationships between the internal conditions of business

This last matrix allows us to make an unambiguous conclusion about the key competencies of the organization, while understanding the use value of a product as a set of hierarchy of requirements imposed on it. These competencies are, in decreasing order of importance: “ability to organize”, “ability to work with people” and “special programming”.

The data obtained after a thorough acquaintance with the company's activities and the peculiarities of the computer telephony systems market are not surprising. It is hard to argue that organizing is key in business in general, and that without some knowledge and experience in this area, the very appearance of the product is in question. For Forte-IT Co., the issue of organizing the production process is especially acute - creating a product requires both general and special programming skills, individual programmers specialize in specific blocks of the product being created, some of them are not permanently employed, but are involved as needed. performance of certain functions. The ability to organize depends on the fulfillment of almost all the company's abilities.

Rice. 14. Influence of abilities on the formation of product properties

Rice. 15. Influence of competencies on the formation of product properties

Rice. 16. Hierarchy of competencies

The ability to work with people, the second most important competence, does not only refer to the formation of an effective team. This competence is also manifested in the training of professional personnel, the development of our own base of competencies for production purposes, the exchange of experience and advanced training. The ability to negotiate profitable contracts relies entirely on this competence. After all, the peculiarity of the computer telephony systems market lies in the almost complete absence of industry or average market price indicators. The same functionality can be obtained by a telecom operator, as noted above, in at least two ways - a hardware solution and a software and hardware solution, moreover, in the category of software and hardware solutions there may be offers from a dozen companies, differences in price between which may reach one order of magnitude. At the same time, too low a price will not always reflect a lower quality of performance, and, often, the size of the ambitions of the company's management. Therefore, it is important to be able to predict the range of prices, the lower limit of which will not scare off the buyer with cheapness, the upper limit will not be higher than the budget determined by the buyer for the introduction of a new service.

The above two competencies can be called key. It is these competencies that distinguish Forte-IT Co. from its competitors; the competitive advantage of the company certainly depends on the degree of their development.

Finally, only in the third position is competence in special programming. Indeed, this is, in its own way, a "transitional" competence. On the one hand, the maximum number of functional capabilities of products directly depends on it, which in the market of industrial consumers is the basis for the preference of one product over another. However, in this competence, the level of competition is reduced, since any company to one degree or another can acquire (develop or acquire) the skills of special programming of computer telephony cards. The uniqueness of this competence is already somewhat limited by the aforementioned standardization of standards based on Dialogic boards. Therefore, although specialists in this field of programming are found on the labor market less often than specialists in general programming, they are not carriers of unique knowledge. For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that there are not so many really experienced programmers of computer telephony cards and they all have jobs in their specialty. Therefore, a newcomer to this market will either have to spend time training their own team of programmers, or engage in outbidding specialists from other companies.

It may come as a surprise that market knowledge is not an essential competence. This reveals the specificity of this market, namely, the practical absence of any analytical materials, generalized information, statistics, etc. Market knowledge boils down to information about the activities of competitors and new services of telecom operators in Russia and abroad, which are disseminated in the course of personal contacts. Therefore, “the ability to work with people” is more important here than knowledge of the market as such. And finally, knowledge of economics, finance and legislation is so general for the entire industry that it cannot even be included in the category of sources of competitive advantage.

When obtaining analysis data, forming a strategic plan, they are based on the principle of reverse logic: carriers of key and most important competencies are found, capabilities (business processes) and the resources they manage are identified, and further business development is built with the aim of maintaining and developing these and directly related with them elements.

The picture obtained unambiguously reflects the importance of each competence, which means that specific managers who are carriers of this knowledge, performers engaged in the implementation of the corresponding abilities, and resources, converted into elements of use value and introduced in a new quality into the final product.

The result of the analysis, therefore, is not only a conclusion about the effectiveness of the current configuration of the business system in terms of creating use value, but also an unambiguous determination of the point of the most effective application of efforts and resources, structuring and ranking the rest of the field.

Further formation of the strategic plan is based on strengthening the key competence and the associated abilities and competencies using methods of both internal (personnel, material and technical base, attraction of financial resources, etc.) and external development (strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions , partnership). Literature

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Competence as a strategic potential of the company

Competence of the company is a set of characteristics that make it professional in the eyes of competitors.

Competence- this is a range of problems, a field of activity in which a given person has knowledge and experience, as well as a set of rights and obligations, as well as the powers of an official or a public organization.

Standard competence of the company is a set of advantages, technologies, abilities, knowledge and skills that allows the company to solve tasks typical for a given market segment, to carry out operational processes adopted as a standard.

Key competence is the strategic potential that a company possesses in the form of a combination of skills, abilities and technologies that allow it to provide its customers with certain values.

Lecture is a discussion.

Key competence can be otherwise referred to as:

1) distinctive

2) basic;

3) unique, etc.

It allows the company to solve problems that are not sent to other companies.

Key competency attributes:

1) Relevance to consumers. Their willingness to pay for competence, as for most of the acquired value.

2) Ability to change and adapt to new market requirements.

3) Unique, low likelihood of being repeated by competitors.

Logistics provides service.

4) Based on knowledge, not judgment.

5) The relevance of compliance with the strategic goals of the market and the company. Clarity, accessibility of the wording.

Key competencies can be:

1) Knowledge of needs and the ability to regularly receive this knowledge.

2) Ability to put into practice the proposal required by the market.

3) Ability to continuously build up and develop key competencies.

Personal (individual) competence is a set of personal properties acquired and consolidated by a person in the course of educational or work activities, as well as a set of knowledge, skills and abilities required for each position.

One way to identify key competencies is through identifying key customers.

There are several types of competence:

1) General corporate;

2) Management;

3) Professional.

Competency development methods:

1) Conducting interviews with employees to obtain behavioral examples (they are asked to provide examples of their work, when something is done well, and when it is just done);

2) Use of ready-made libraries of competence;

3) Repertoire grids. Asking employees for their opinion about a colleague;

4) Analysis of work tasks;

5) Direct structured supervision over the work of personnel;

6) Analysis of various documents;

The purpose of developing a competency model- improving the performance of a particular organization by identifying such employee behavior that contributes to the achievement of this goal.

There are three levels of competency ownership:

1) Unsatisfactory, in which the employee is not suitable for work in the company.

2) Sufficient level. For normal performance, by an employee, duties within the position.

3) Outstanding - which distinguishes the best, most effective employees.