Business Strategy 04 - Internal Factors: Resources, Capabilities & Core Competencies

In this session, we talk about analyzing internal strengths and weaknesses of a firm. We highlight the importance of creating value for customers, look at resources and study the 5 attributes that make them true "core competencies". We introduce steps for a solid analysis of our industry value chain as well as our internal value chain and look at a few financial benchmarks that help us understand our firm's standing relative to its peers. Finally, we discuss why an honest and straightforward analysis of internal strengths and weaknesses is not easy, especially when internal politics gets in the way.