Growing Your Business and Gaining a Competitive Advantage through
Partnering with RTB Products, Inc.
Part 2: Define your core competency then Partner with RTB.
C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel first defined 'core competency" in a 1990 Harvard Business Review article, "The Core Competencies of the Firm." According to the authors, "Core competencies are the collective learning in the organization, especially how to coordinate diverse production skills and integrate multiple streams of technology." In other words, core competencies are those things that differentiate a company from its competitors.
According to Michael Corbett & Associates, a management education and research firm, "Core competencies are skill and knowledge sets, not products or functions. Core copetencies must be flexible, long-term platforms for success. They are limited in number usually - three to five - and exist at unique sources of leverage in the value chain. They are in areas where the company can dominate the competition and they are embedded in the organization's systems."
Partnering with RTB allows your organization to focus on its core competencies. Non-core activities are part of a customized program with RTB - for example, manufacturing and quality control. Once partnered with RTB, management is free to focus on core activities, the activities that will differentiate your company from your competitors.
Technology-based manufacturers, for example, have a particular need to focus on their core competency of research and development. If technological innovation is what separates an enterprise from its competitors, then the company's resources should be predominantly directed to that area - not manufacturing.
In contrast, the core-competencies of RTB is to provide flexible, agile and reliable manufacturing services, and to produce quality products that add value to their customer's bottom line. Our focus is not on research and development, instead, we invest in production technology and workforce training.
After identifying your company's core competencies, look at the remainder of your companies activities, particularly in the manufacturing area. Of the manufacturing activities required to build and package your products, you are likely to find that few of them are unique and specialized activities that differentiate your products from the competition.
You must then evaluate whether you are really optimizing your company's time and money by undertaking manufacturing activities that are not core competencies. Are there production functions that are better served by moving them out of your facility? By Partnering with RTB for your manufacturing, you can then optimize your company's resources by commiting them to your core competencies.
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