something unique a business has or can do strategically well
what are core competencies
-collective learning within the business
-ability of a business to integrate skills and technologies
-ability of a business to deliver superior products and services
-ways a business is differentiate to be competitive
what counts as a core competence?
-it provides benefits for consumers
-not easily copied by competitors
-leveraged widely to many products and markets
criticisms of the idea of core competencies
-by encouraging business to focus of their core competencies many larger firms took this as a sign that they needed to out source non-core business activities
