Core competencies: A core competency is a concept in management theory introduced by C. K.

Prahalad and Gary Hamel. It can be defined as "a harmonized combination of multiple resources and
skills that distinguish a firm in the marketplace". Core competencies fulfill three criteria: Provides
potential access to a wide variety of markets.

Generally a competency is described as the knowledge, skills and behavioral attributes necessary for
acceptable job performance.

Knowledge refers to previous education and experience, skills refers to the technical or practical skills
required to perform the job and behavioral attributes refer to personality characteristics that are key to
successful job performance.

Core competency is an organization's defining strength, providing the foundation from which the
business will grow, seize upon new opportunities and deliver value to customers. A company's
core competency is not easily replicated by other organizations, whether existing competitors or
new entries into its market.

A company can have more than one core competency. Core competencies, which are sometimes
called core capabilities or distinctive competencies, help create a sustained competitive
advantage for organizations.

Why Core Competencies?

What are the advantages of developing and improving core comptencies in libraries? Here is
a review.

1. Better huamn resource planning. Instead of trying to fit the person to the
organization, work from the organization and ask, "What do we need? What would
we like?"
2. More effective training programs. Training programs designed to meet future
needs are effective.
3. A list of critical technological capabilities. Besides knowing which are our critical
capabilites we also know which are not; resources can be spent wisely.
4. An opportunity for a strength-weakening analysis. Answering questions about
what we do well and knowing what threats and opportunities we face is critical to
planning.
5. Help with outsourcing options. Since organizational functions interact, there may
be unintended consequences to outsourcing components of core competencies. For
example, outsourcing bookkeeping may be sensible or it may be depriving us of
valuable information about our purchased materials.
6. Guidance for development or change. Once a system of core competencies is
functioning, it provides a road map for development. Having a list of critical skills
allows us to see how we might improve them to our advantage.
7. Vision of the whole organization. The global perspecitve of core comptencies
allows us to study what we're really good at. Knowing where we excel allows us to
better exploit our advantages.
8. Innovation is required for survival. Core competencies help to identify specific
behaviors int he organization that are appropriate to stratey design.
 Tested of Core Competency:

Some tests for core competency to determine if a collective learning is core competency:

The core competency must provide access to a wide variety of market.

The cjompetency should make a significant contribution to the perceived customer
benefit of end products or secvices.
A core competency must be difficult to imitate.
The competency must make a significant contribution to customer perceived value or to
the financial health of the organization.
The competency must be unique or performed in a way that is substantially superior to its
peers.
The competency must be capable of being applied to a range of new products and
services.