ABSTRACT
When one talks about core competency and competitive advantage, it is important that the competency comes from within the organization and possibly within the value chain. A core competency requires the company to be the best, or nearly the best, at the chosen competence. A competence-based strategy cannot merely be grounded on a skill that is important to a business or something that customers like. For a competitive strategy to be sustainable, company managers have to choose a different set of activities from the competitors and deliver them in a way that creates a unique value. It almost seems unfair that being better than the competition is not enough to have a sustainable competitive advantage, but the reality is that fit and focus are necessary to a sustainable competitive strategy. Whether or not the source of the competition can be understood by competitors depends upon the source of the competition.
