Playing to Unique Competencies

Mr. Ejale

This is can be pegged as an incomplete SWOT analysis. That is, internal analysis (strength and weaknesses) with less emphasis on the external analysis of opportunities and threats. Usually these competencies can range from the tangible to the intangible. In every business, it’s important to understand your strength as an organization and make conscious effort towards developing them while on a secondary level upgrading your weaknesses towards a point of average. In The Art of war, Sun Tzu said “if I know myself, I know the terrain and I know my enemy. I can predict the outcome of a 1000 battles”. Although there are three variables in this sentence, it all begins with “if I know myself”. Most organizations these days are more fixated on the competition instead of having a healthy dose of understanding, of what makes them better than the next guy e.g “are they small”- this makes for quick decision making as such, once they notice any feedback they can implement changes as quickly as possible. They are abreast with change and the travel speed of communication is very fast. Do they have a “progressive corporate culture” i.e they are open to change and learning new way of things, hence there should be conscious effort made towards pin pointing and adopting best practice in the local or global industry and the list goes on. Where I feel most organizations also get it wrong is, instead of making tentative effort to identify their strengths and weaknesses. They carry out a vague internal analysis and having identified some areas in broad strokes, they try to improve all of these areas across the board. Now, improvements are good but to have that piercing effect like an arrowhead. There should be a pointed tip i.e. your internal competency which you’ve filed to become razor sharp. But to further illustrate my point, let’s take a case study Case 1 there’s a little bakery, very tiny just opposite of Kada cinemas in Benin-Sapele Road. Benin City- it’s just basically a room and a show glass. And everyday, this lady sells out- literally. And I must confess, her snacks aren’t the tastiest in the world. But two things work to her advantage; 1. Her location, not because the business is sited close the happy-go lucky movie goers attending the cinema. But instead the boys that stay hawking along that road morning till night. Hence she’s identified her market, so her things are cheap. 2. Controlled quantities; I’m certain by now from passing comments she must have identified that the fact that all her snacks are baked at the point of sale, is a major plus for her business. Having information number two at the back of her mind, she constantly under supplies her products. Not because she wants to drive up prices through artificial scarcity. But because she has come to understand that, the competency of her cottage business which might sometime rival a bigger eatery is the freshness of her products. Thank you