Business & Technology

What kind of resources and capabilities did you create at your former employer – that others will enjoy long after you left? Do we have a business tool to figure this?

We know that companies with superior resources and capabilities not only produce products and services more efficiently, but deliver better customer benefits than their competitors. But not every resource and every capability, say Dranove and Marciano in Kellogg on Strategy. To translate into competitive advantage, you need resources and capabilities that are scarce, immobile, co-specialized, and scopable.

Personal case to illustrate As an example, here are the characteristics of the resources and capabilities I created at a former employer.

Scarce: Possibly around 75 people got trained in my two business units between 1996 and 2007. Half a dozen of them were given the capability to use a crude and vendor-oriented precursor of the oil drilling model, which is a strategy-driven method for software discovery and design. Th…

Yellen, Lagarde, and Merkel may be ruling the world in some ways, but they're only 3 among a much larger and growing number of women in top positions in various fields. Last week, there was a program on CNN, Are Women Taking Over the World? But long before that, it was Tom Peters who made the claim. Tom's The Circle of Innovation published in 1997 has a chapter "It's a Woman's World" although his argument came from a business perspective.

Tom said, "Women are smarter than men. Women are better managers than men." Here are a few of the stunning estimates from his 2012 work: 50% of American workforce (non-farm) comprises women ... 63% increase in American women’s average wage (during that period, men’s average wage increased by 0.6%) ... 55% of university degrees being granted to women in America ... $28 TRILLION is the women’s annual global purchasing power ...

I am happy for the woman who is free – to think, to learn, to accomplish!

PS: Interestingly…