such as producing innovative products are a capability that arises out of the
underlying assets and competencies of the organisation. These competencies
can lie at the three decision-making tiers; strategic, functional and oper-
ational, and at three levels in the organisation’s structure; corporate, team
and individual level (Hooley et al., 1998):
● Strategic competencies: These relates to the management skills, the drive
and the strategic direction of the organisation. Skills should be assessed
in a range of areas. Ability to: create strategic vision, communicate,
motivate, implement strategy, assess changing circumstances, learn
and innovate.
● Functional competencies: These refer to the skills available to the organ-
isation to manage its activities in the various functional areas such as
finance, operations and marketing. The marketing function should be
assessed on its skills such as handling customer relationships, channel
management, product management, product innovation and new
product development.
● Operational competencies: These skills are necessary to run the day-
to-day operations across the functional areas of the organisation. As an
example in the marketing function these would include skills of
co-ordinating and implementing: sales force activities, promotional
campaigns, public relations activities, special offers and discounts,
updating product packaging and labelling. Where these activities are
sub-contracted to third parties such as public relations agencies, the
skills that need to be assessed are the abilities of co-ordinating and
controlling these external relationships.
● Individual competencies: These are the abilities and skills that lie with
individuals in the organisation. These competencies are based not on
individual’s skills in isolation, but on whether individuals have the
required skills to execute the tasks they face in their area of responsi-
bility, whether at strategic, functional or operational level.
● Team competencies: It is necessary for individuals in organisations to
work together in teams. These may be teams formed on a formal or
informal basis. Despite the specific skill base of the individuals’ involved,
a group also requires the skills necessary to work together as a team.
A key element of successful project management relies on these team
competencies.
● Corporate-level competencies: There are the skills, that apply to the organ-
isation in its entirety, to execute tasks at strategic, functional and oper-
ational level. This could relate to the ability to foster innovation
throughout the organisation or the ability to exploit and continually
update the organisational knowledge base, by effective communica-
tion of critical learning throughout the business.
Once the assets and competencies of an organisation have been identified
there are likely to be some assets that are more important than others. The
relationship between these assets and competencies can be mapped to
uncover the key relationships (see Figure 5.2).
Internal analysis 93