Dmitry Korotkov
Has 13 years of experience in the field of information technology and management. A significant share of work falls on projects in the financial sector, as well as on the implementation of SAP solutions. Since August 2005, he has been leading the project to implement the Temenos T24 system at KMB Bank.
As the company's project portfolio develops and its user coverage expands, the company tends to centralize management of the entire project portfolio and transform it into a centrally managed program. And this trend is often realized in the decision to create a corporate competence center for a business application.
The end of the 1990s and the beginning of this century in Russian business were marked by a significant consolidation of business and the structures that manage it. On the one hand, companies were enlarged through the formation of vertically and horizontally integrated holdings. Examples of such a combination of diversified businesses into holdings include Alfa Group, Basic Element, Severstal Group, and Evraz Holding. On the other hand, territorial expansion of metropolitan and regional companies and banks has been and continues to be active. Examples include the Bank of Moscow, which is increasing its regional network many times over, Uralsib Bank, and the Eldorado chain of stores.
Impact of business trends on information technology
The above-mentioned processes in the development of Russian business, in turn, put forward new requirements for information technology services and determine new trends in their development. When merging or diversifying a business, a portfolio of business applications, accompanied by an IT service, must provide support for various areas of activity within the company or holding. Analytical services of IT departments need to adequately support changes and standardization of business processes in expanding and transforming companies.
To ensure a company's competitive advantage, its management, together with the management of the IT service, needs to identify the main applications that are critical for their specific business, which reflect its specifics, its know-how. Problems in operating such applications can cause serious damage to a business.
Considering the growth of information infrastructure, the number of applications and their users, it is necessary to create an “economy of scale” and prevent routine costs of information technology from growing in direct proportion to business growth. Gradually, as the organizational structure of companies and IT services in them “matures”, with the streamlining of the interaction of company divisions and their support requirements, shared services systems are developing.
The last decade has been marked by another trend - the increasing universalization of standard business applications in relation to the supported industries. For example, one software package of the ERP II class may well serve various businesses within the same holding or group of companies, and analytical applications of the Business Intelligence class - even more so. For many companies using ERP systems, for a number of financial institutions using banking and insurance systems, it is typical that these systems operate in a centralized mode and often online throughout the country.
All these factors set the stage and shape the business need to develop enterprise competency centers for business applications.
Choosing a development model
Considering the stage of implementation of solutions, we can say that the model, when work during the implementation of a technological solution is divided between several independent departments (analysts, implementers, users), is characteristic of industrial production and was actively used in the 80s and early 90s of the last century . This model is focused on a “product” approach and implies a long (usually measured in years) implementation cycle while maintaining the stability of business processes for several years. Since the mid-90s of the last century, a customer-oriented approach has reigned in business. This is associated with frequent (every few months) changes in business processes. There is an inevitable transition to project methods for implementing technological solutions, when one team is responsible for the solution from start to finish. This approach (subject to adequate support within the organization) provides a quick solution to the problem and, most importantly, solves the problem of responsibility for the final result.
Russian companies with a general project-oriented activity and focus of business solutions on a specific software package (mySAP Business Suite, Oracle e-Business Suite, etc.) are characterized by the so-called application-centric model, when activity to support business processes is concentrated around specific application. It would be more accurate to call it a hybrid model, since the basic services that provide the main business application (infrastructure management, backup, database administration) are often provided by other IT services (shared services).
In large companies that have implemented integrated systems, projects have often historically developed on the principle of supporting client groups, when implementation occurs in the interests of a specific business unit or a specific group of users. As the portfolio of projects develops and grows, and the coverage of users expands, there is a growing tendency to centralize the management of the entire portfolio of projects, transforming it into a centrally managed program. This trend often manifests itself in the decision to create an enterprise competency center for a business application (whether a solution from SAP, Oracle or another package).
In general, organizing a competence center makes sense in two cases - when a company wants to establish effective centralized management of the operation and development of a business application, and when it subsequently plans to outsource this function. Another characteristic prerequisite for creating a center is the justified need for large expenditures on the constant development of new system functionality that is in demand by business.
When preparing to create a center of competence, the application portfolio needs to identify the standard part that is no different from the applications used in other companies, and the key applications specific to this business that provide a competitive advantage. It is for these applications that it makes sense to create competence centers that will focus on all aspects of the development and support of key business applications.
Arguments in favor of the application-centric development model of a competence center are its close connection with business units and users, deep knowledge of the business supported by the center's employees, quick response to new requirements, guaranteed quality of business-critical applications and their better compliance with business requirements.
Objectives and structure of the competence center
The objectives of a corporate competency center should be determined in accordance with business goals, the specifics of the specific application, and the company's long-term plans for the competency center itself and its role. However, it is possible to identify a number of basic typical tasks of such a center.
Among the first will be the analysis and optimization of business processes, taking into account their technological support based on a software package (in this case, for a number of processes, the use of other systems or manual work can be proposed). This task includes analysis of the possible implementation of requests from business units, assessment and coordination of the priority of projects for the implementation of new functionality with business units. To ensure proper provision of resources and understanding of priorities, the participation of the center's management in managing the company's project portfolio (including their resources, technological compatibility and consistency) is necessary.
The next block of tasks is the direct implementation of technological solutions based on the software package within the framework of projects, support and maintenance of implemented solutions, and user training. To ensure the leading role of the center and the relevance of its “offer” for business, it is necessary to constantly train the center’s employees and conduct research work (analysis of new versions, possible problems when updating versions, new functionality of the system). We must not forget about the proactive search for new technological solutions that can be used for business development. Naturally, the tasks of the center’s management also include managing the budget for implementation and maintenance of solutions based on the appropriate software package.
The structure of a competence center is usually based on the fact that its divisions (groups, departments) specialize in supporting a specific area of business. This also determines specialization on a certain group of modules. An integration and standards group is also being created, which is responsible for the commonality of approaches when implementing different modules and the integrity and relevance of regulatory and reference information, and a technical support group, which is responsible for administering the system and interfaces, version control, and, if necessary, programming.
For example, for a competence center for SAP solutions, you can define several main functional groups that support certain areas of business (the list of relevant modules is incomplete, given for illustrative purposes only): logistics, including materials management, planning, sales and transportation (modules MM, LE , SD, APO); production planning and service and repair management (PP, PM modules); accounting, management and project accounting (modules FI, AA, CO, PS); personnel management (HR); analytics and reporting (BW, SEM). SAP platform specialists (NetWeaver, Basis), ABAP programmers, as well as those responsible for regulatory and reference information will provide common services within the framework of projects and solution support.
Centralization of all processes associated with solutions based on a software package within the center will ensure the creation of conditions where processes are comprehensively planned, effectively implemented, coordinated and controlled in a single, consistent cycle, under the leadership of a single center.
In order for the created corporate competence center to work effectively, it is possible to offer those responsible for its creation a number of useful measures, grouped into main areas in accordance with the Balanced Scorecard ideology.
1. Processes and technologies. The most obvious is the establishment and regulation of industrial processes of planning, implementation and support of business decisions. The first step is to define a Service Level Agreement, which will become the basis for all the work of the center, and regularly evaluate its implementation and review it.
When developing processes for planning needs for new functionality, it would be wise to use the institution of representatives of the center's functional groups in business units, who will become a channel of two-way communication with the business. They can also quickly inform the business about promising opportunities for using systems.
Although elements of a functional unit appear in the work of the center, it is still necessary to clearly apply methods for initiating projects and managing a portfolio of projects - taking into account priority and costs, maintaining the responsibility of customers and “business process owners”. The creation of project teams for new tasks and their subsequent management should be regulated and optimized. In some cases, you can delegate project management to consultants, but only if there is strict control and informed confidence in success.
At the very beginning of the process of organizing a center, an audit of the design, technical and user documentation for the systems in use should be carried out. All documentation must be developed in a timely manner, using corporate standards.
When working with extensions and modifications to a standard package, you need to maintain uniform standards for version control, development and testing methods. The use of extensions and modifications should be as limited as possible and strictly controlled. The procedure for testing and implementing new functionality (transfers between the development environment and the test environment, testing and production environments, etc.) should be strictly applied in practice.
As for regulatory and reference information, the main part of it is best maintained centrally. This main part includes data on business partners, finished products or financial and insurance products, and main types of raw materials. The maintenance of local regulatory and reference information can be delegated locally if there is a distributed production structure. However, such a solution is hardly applicable for financial institutions: there is a stronger tendency to centralize control.
It is impossible to isolate a competence center from the general IT environment of the company, so it is necessary to organize the assessment and management of interaction with other IT projects within the company.
Both during the organization and during the work of the center, it is imperative to periodically conduct an audit of projects and solutions with the involvement of consultants, primarily from the software package supplier.
2.People. One of the main tasks during the creation of the center and the establishment of its work is the preservation of the existing team and its further development.
Based on the results of the planning phase, a list of qualifications required to perform the center's tasks should be compiled. It is necessary to identify key qualifications for each area in order to then plan the training of existing and attracting new specialists. At the planning stage, it is necessary to evaluate the results of the work of project managers, group and service leaders. If necessary, you will need to select experienced, proactive and charismatic people for the positions of team leaders and project managers.
With highly qualified staff, the roles of business analysts and functional module specialists can be combined for center staff. This approach will allow the optimization of processes to make maximum use of the capabilities of the information system, as well as initially take into account its inevitable limitations (which is very useful for managing expectations). A good professional incentive for the center’s employees is the work mode itself, in which multidisciplinary teams provide various services to users: it is interesting to the team itself due to its more varied work.
As discussed above, internal training must be provided as part of a continuing education program to transfer expertise while limiting costs. It includes independent study of courses and modules of the system, research by specialists in special areas (new functionality, new versions, etc.) with subsequent reports, mentoring by more experienced employees.
As project teams complete their tasks, it is necessary to disband the groups in a timely manner, preventing their participants from getting hung up on the task already completed and focusing on constant development. For representatives of business units involved on an ongoing basis, it is necessary to think through the ways of their possible development (super user, representative of the center in a business unit, transition to the center).
3. Clients. An important component of the successful work of the center and its evaluation by business is the building of productive relationships with “clients” - business units. To do this, a two-way communication system with business units (clients) must be established. The management of the company and business units should be regularly informed about plans, results achieved, emerging risks and ways to control them.
To make the results of the center's work measurable, it is necessary to define metrics for the usefulness of applications that are understandable and accepted by business units. Business process owners must be identified and actively involved at all stages of the application life cycle. The above-mentioned representatives of the competence center in business units will play an active role in this.
Users must be promptly and adequately trained to work with implemented applications and fully participate in testing and acceptance of implemented solutions. It is necessary to establish an active and competent user support service, while a general IT service desk may be used to provide first level support.
4.Finance. This article cannot provide direct economic estimates, since each case requires a separate calculation based on the situation of a particular company. The main direct opportunity to optimize costs when organizing a center is to save money through centralization. By centralizing work in a competency center, savings can be made - by avoiding potential duplication of implementation across different departments, by replicating solutions rather than creating them multiple times.
For geographically distributed companies, it makes sense to evaluate the advantages and costs of various options for territorial organization: the concentration of all center employees at the company headquarters, the placement of some functional groups in other cities, the presence of small local support groups.
Taking a proactive and structured approach to working with consultants and software package providers also provides opportunities to get better value from your investment. Outsourcing can and should be actively used, but within the framework of a clear and transparent procedure.
The most significant opportunity to obtain indirect financial benefits when creating a competence center is the faster realization of benefits and savings from the implementation of business-appropriate application solutions.
In order to show both direct and indirect benefits, it is extremely important to establish a mechanism for assessing and demonstrating the adequacy of investments in the development of software solutions, since a very common situation is when company management feels the need to invest in the development of information systems, but is not sure that these investments are correctly directed and that their sizes are adequate to business needs.
By 2020, at least two competence centers will be created for each of the areas of cross-cutting technologies of the Digital Economy program. There are currently five such centers. The Skolkovo Foundation is responsible for regulatory regulation, the Agency for Strategic Initiatives is responsible for personnel and education, Rostelecom is responsible for information infrastructure, Sberbank is responsible for information security, Rostec and Rosatom are responsible for the formation of research competencies and technological groundwork.
In addition to competency centers, working groups have been created for each area, headed by top managers of telecommunications and IT companies. As the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications said, this helps to take into account the opinions of all representatives of the industry - the working groups are open, representatives of companies, public organizations, and the scientific community can join them. They can complement proposals for the implementation of programs that are considered by the competence centers. The opinion of the working group is taken into account when preparing action plans for each area of the Digital Economy program.
Not only business representatives, but also federal executive authorities take an active part in the work of competence centers. This allows you to quickly prepare action plans. For ease of interaction, the centers have created separate websites and instant messenger chats where interested organizations can send their comments and suggestions.
In addition, an information system for electronic interaction is being created, said Evgeny Kislyakov, deputy head of the Government Analytical Center and head of the project office. Accounts for each participant in the process will be created in the system, basic documents and materials of the subcommittee will be posted. It is also planned to post action plans and reports on their implementation there. It is expected that the system will become a convenient communication platform for competence centers and working groups.
It is necessary to develop a set of legislative measures to create a digital environment of trust
Some of the competence centers have already shared information about what they are working on. For example, Rosatom is responsible for four areas of activity - new production technologies, big data, virtual and additional reality technologies, and quantum technologies. Rostec develops neurotechnologies and artificial intelligence, distributed registry systems, the industrial Internet, robotics and sensors, and wireless communication technologies. The Agency for Strategic Initiatives works in five subgroups - general and additional education, vocational education, continuing education and personnel, methodology, technology.
114 representatives of leading companies in the field of IT and telecommunications are taking part in the work of the Information Infrastructure competence center, Rostelecom told RG. In total, the expert community proposed about 500 events with specific proposals for the development of fifth generation (5G) communication networks, data storage and processing infrastructure, the creation of “digital” transport corridors, ensuring equal access of citizens to digital services in the field of healthcare and education, and the formation of a new type of infrastructure - digital end-to-end technology platforms. The main provisions of the program's action plan will be presented at the international innovation development forum "Open Innovation", which will be held from October 16 to 18 in the Skolkovo technology park.
And the Skolkovo Foundation, as a center of competence in the area of “normative regulation”, gathered a pool of 400 experts and prepared a set of proposals for changing and adapting legislation for the purposes of the digital economy. In particular, issues of regulation of artificial intelligence are discussed. “This also applies to so-called cyber-physical systems (drones, unmanned vehicles, robots), and artificial intelligence as a kind of software product. Questions are being considered whether artificial intelligence can be used in the work of government authorities, whether such programs can be human assistants or make independent decisions. We must determine our position on these issues in order to capture specific decisions in the concept of medium- and long-term measures,” said Igor Drozdov, Chairman of the Board of the Skolkovo Foundation.
The plans developed by the competence centers are verified in working groups, after which they are sent to the government commission for approval. Work on these plans then continues in the competence centers.
Kashirin A.I. 1, Semenov A.S. 2, Strenaluk V.V. 3, Ostrovskaya A.A. 4, Kokuytseva T.V. 5
1 Professor, Candidate of Economic Sciences, Head of the basic department “Innovative management and foreign economic activity in industry” of the Institute of Space Technologies (formerly IPTIE) RUDN University,
2 Candidate of physical and mathematical sciences, deputy head of the basic department “Innovative management and foreign economic activity in industry” of the Institute of Space Technologies (formerly IPTIE) RUDN University,
3 Senior lecturer of the basic department “Innovative management and foreign economic activity in industry” of the Institute of Space Technologies (formerly IPTIE) RUDN University, chief expert of the Department of Innovative Development and New Projects of the Rostec State Corporation;
4 Candidate of Economic Sciences, Deputy Director, Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Education "Peoples' Friendship University of Russia" (RUDN),
5 Candidate of Economic Sciences, Deputy Director, Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Education "Peoples' Friendship University of Russia" (RUDN)
The work was supported by the Russian Humanitarian Foundation grant N16-02-00711
DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF KEY COMPETENCIES IN THE CORPORATION: WORLDWIDE EXPERIENCE
annotation
Today, the determining factor of competitiveness at all levels (micro-, meso-, macro-level) of management is the presence of unique, innovative competencies, the possession, effective use and development of which will ensure global superiority, enter the market of fundamentally new products and technologies, and basis to create new market segments.
The choice of an enterprise development strategy that ensures the growth of its competitiveness is determined by external (national legislation, political and economic situation in the country, scientific and technological progress, market conditions, etc.) and internal (goals and objectives of enterprise development, availability of resources (financial, labor, production) and other) factors and can rely on the results of theoretical developments of Russian and foreign scientists in the field of strategic management, as well as the practical experience of leading companies, leaders in the world market.
This work is aimed at studying foreign experience in the field of management of organizational, managerial, technological and scientific and technical competencies.
Keywords: competitiveness, key competencies, competitive strategy, matrix of unique competencies.
Kashirin A.I. 1, Semenov A.S. 2, Strenaluk V.V. 3, Ostrovskaya A.A.4, Kokuytseva T.V. 5
1 Professor, PhD in Economics, Deputy Chairman of the Scientific-technical Council of state Corporation “Rostec”, Head of the Department “Innovation management and foreign trade activities in the industry” the Institute of Space Technology (former. Institute of applied technical and economic researches and examinations), Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Education People's Friendship University of Russia,
2 PhD in Physics and Mathematics, Deputy Head of the Department “Innovation management and foreign trade activities in the industry” the Institute of Space Technology (former. Institute of applied technical and economic researches and examinations), Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Education People's Friendship University of Russia,
3 Chief expert of the Department of innovative development and new projects of the state Corporation “Rostec”, Senior Lecturer of the Department “Innovation management and foreign trade activities in the industry” the Institute of Space Technology (former. Institute of applied technical and economic researches and examinations), Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Education People's Friendship University of Russia,
4 PhD in Economics, Deputy Director of the Institute of Space Technology (former. Institute of applied technical and economic researches and examinations), Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Education People’s Friendship University of Russia,
5 PhD in Economics, Deputy Director of the Institute of Space Technology (former. Institute of applied technical and economic researches and examinations), Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Education People’s Friendship University of Russia
DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF KEY COMPETENCIES IN A CORPORATION: THE WORLD EXPERIENCE
Abstract
Today, the determinant of competitiveness at all levels (micro, meso, macro) of management is the presence of unique, innovative competencies, possession, the effective use and development of which will ensure global superiority, will provide an opportunity to market innovative products and technologies, create new market segments, based on them.
Choice of the enterprise development strategy, providing the growth of its competitiveness, is due to external (national legislation, the political and economic situation in the country, the scientific and technological progress, market, etc.) and internal (enterprise development goals and objectives , the availability of resources (financial, labor, production), etc.) factors and can be based on the results of the theoretical developments of Russian and foreign scientists in the field of strategic management, as well as practical experience in leading companies, leaders in the world market.
The work aims to study foreign experience in the field of management of organizational, managerial, technological and scientific and technical competencies.
Keywords: competitiveness, core competencies, competitive strategy, unique matrix of competencies.
The basis for creating a sustainable competitive advantage at the present stage of increased competition and instability of the external environment lies in the company’s competencies, presented in the form of technologies, knowledge, know-how, integrated into organizational systems and business processes. The main task of the company under such conditions is to identify “key competencies” and develop directions for their further development, taking into account various external factors and based on the strategic goals of the company.
The company's core competencies provide the opportunity to combine all components of the existing business, and at the same time contribute to the development of new business areas (only to a certain extent, since sometimes fundamentally new knowledge, technologies and skills are needed to update the company's product line). The more key competencies are put into practice, the more they develop and improve, acquiring complete features. Consequently, key competencies used in practice do not wear out, but those competencies that are no longer used become obsolete.
The company's core competencies are unique, difficult-to-reproduce competencies that form the basis of the company's sustainable competitive advantage over a long period of time and determine an individual business model or product line.
Let us list the ideas of the approach to managing an organization (company), which is based on the concept of key competencies:
- A company's sustainable competitive advantage lies not in its products, but in its core competencies. The search for the true sources of advantage must be found in management's ability to consolidate the company's existing technologies, production skills and experience, which will allow the company to quickly adapt to changing opportunities;
- A company's core competencies are most often embedded in more than one of its products and influence the activities of more than one business unit. Examples of core competencies are: Sony - miniaturization, Canon - combination of precision mechanics, optics and microelectronics, Honda - engine expertise;
- the concept of core competencies implies viewing a large company with a divisional structure not as a set of strategic business units, but as a set of competencies that do not necessarily belong to one of the areas or structural divisions. In other words, in the process of separating business units, conditions are created for the application of effective innovations in relation to specific product markets, but at the same time, within the framework of strictly structured areas, the opportunities for developing new competencies may be restrained. Companies that have rigid boundaries between business units are characterized by a strategy of deepening competencies within each business unit, while companies with flexible internal boundaries are associated with a strategy based on the general expansion of competencies and their flexible reallocation;
- the identification and development of a company’s key competencies depends on its strategic goals that define the “map of the future.”
Different Approaches to Competitive Strategy
M. Porter describes a competitive strategy as a combination of goals (results) pursued by an enterprise and the means (methods) by which it intends to achieve them. The author calls this combination the “wheel of competitive strategy” and analyzes it as a means of most compactly displaying the key aspects of an enterprise’s competitive strategy.
According to M. Porter's approach, the axis of the wheel is the goals of the enterprise, that is, the general definition of its intentions and specific tasks tied to its performance indicators; the spokes of the wheel represent the key areas of activity of the enterprise, with the help of which it seeks to realize goals and fulfill indicators. It is important that the spokes (methods) come from the center (goals) and are connected to each other, otherwise the wheel will not roll. Porter believes that under each point of the scheme there should be a brief description of the key points of the company's activities according to the profile of its production, and depending on the nature of the business, the formulation of the key directions of business policies may be more or less specific. Once the key business policies are formulated, they form the concept of strategy, which can be used as a guide to guide all behavior of the firm. The wheel method is recommended for visualization for business purposes and for decision making.
M. Porter focuses on the fact that, in general, the formulation of a competitive strategy involves consideration of key factors that determine the boundaries of opportunity and the potential of successful companies.
Based on the results of the research, the professor formulated his own definition of competitive strategy - these are defensive or offensive actions that are aimed at taking a strong position in the industry, successfully overcoming the five competitive forces that hinder the development of enterprises. The result should be higher returns on investments. Despite the recognition of M. Porter of the fact that companies have demonstrated a variety of ways to achieve this goal, he argues that other companies can only be surpassed by three internally consistent and successful competitive strategies: achieving absolute cost leadership, differentiation and focus. He substantiated this by summarizing the experience of various companies.
M. Porter believes that these strategies are three highly viable approaches to counteracting the competitive forces that undermine the business of a particular company, while he cautions all managers that it is more effective to implement only one of these approaches and bring it to perfection than “ to disperse." Thus, he insists on avoiding the dispersion of resources. According to the scientist, the failure to follow only one of the approaches will lead managers and their companies to the position of “stuck somewhere in the middle”, without any sound strategy.
The main reason why M. Porter's ideas do not fully work in practice is that many companies rarely operate according to the rules he proposed. In the 1980s, a large number of Japanese and some American companies undertook what M. Porter thought was impossible - they simultaneously reduced their costs to a minimum and differentiated. In his terminology, these companies were “stuck in the middle,” but not only survived, but thrived. But in his opinion, if you stick to the rules, you can succeed even more. That is, companies have not fully revealed their potential.
Significant contributions to the development of views on competitive strategy were made by G. Hamel, Professor of Strategic and International Management at London Business School, and K. K. Prahalad, Professor of Business Administration, Corporate Strategy and International Business at the University of Michigan Business School. In 1994, their joint book “Competing for the Future” was published, in which the authors argue that instead of viewing a company as a collection of enterprises, managers should begin to perceive it as a combination of core, basic competencies, i.e. skills, abilities and technologies that enable the provision of benefits to consumers. According to G. Hamel and K. K. Prahalad, the prospects of an enterprise are determined by superiority not in modern, but in future markets and is called intellectual leadership. Such markets, according to researchers, have not yet been formed, but they should be imagined now and efforts should be made to create them. That is, skills, abilities and technologies may not be localized in a specific division or division.
One of the most important conditions for intellectual leadership, according to professors, is the skillful use of “basic product functionality” and “key competencies.” The first concept means that in order to envision the future, managers should not think about existing products and services, but begin to think about their functionality and ask the question “What value or benefits do existing products and services provide to consumers?” By asking this question, managers can discover many new opportunities for their own companies. Moreover, these new opportunities can be created on the basis of existing ones.
G. Hamel and K. K. Prahalad, explaining the essence of “core competencies,” consider it necessary to establish contact with three groups of company employees. Scientists say the input of young professionals is needed first as they stake their claim on the future: “Generation X workers need to be encouraged to exchange ideas with the gray-haired members of the executive committee.” Second, the researchers suggest using people who are on the periphery of the organization, since the ability for strategic innovation increases with each mile in proportion to the distance from the central office. It is at the periphery (for example, in subsidiaries or remote branches) that it is most likely possible to find people who are most open to ideas and processes that do not conform to the orthodox principles of the company. Such people have the greatest creative potential because they are limited by minimal resources. Finally, G. Hamel and K. K. Prahalad advise bringing as many new people into the organization as possible into the process, since these people “have not yet been imbued with the prevailing dogmas of the industry.”
In order to denote competitive strategy, G. Hamel and K. K. Prahalad introduced a new term - “strategic architecture”. With the help of strategic architecture, a company can see the capabilities it should develop at the moment; new channels that need to be explored today; new development priorities that need to be pursued at the moment in order to seize the future and market initiative. Thus, strategic architecture addresses questions about what needs to be done today to prepare to capture a significant share of future revenues in the arena of emerging opportunities." As a result, this approach is called the concept of market space formation.
The main advantage of the proposed theory is the statement that production is a dynamic movement into the future. According to G. Hamel and K. K. Prahalad, being considered second or third in an industry is not as profitable as previously thought, because the leader skims the cream of the market. They tried to point out that even small companies have the opportunity to become leaders, calling for victory “not with resources, but with skill.”
Matrix of unique competencies (organic and inorganic competencies)
Any modern corporation operating in high-tech markets needs tools and mechanisms adapted to the current pace of development, which include a methodology for the formation and updating of “key competencies”, the creation of support centers for “inorganic competencies” (focused on creating new “key competencies”) and practical mechanisms “ open innovation" as tools that provide accelerated recruitment and development of new competencies based on close interaction with the market and receiving feedback from it. To adequately make a decision on the development of a particular competency and to choose the form of using the “open innovation” approach, a matrix of competencies is used, namely the division of the entire subset of competencies of the innovation block and not only into organic and inorganic competencies.
Table 1. Comparative characteristics of organic and inorganic competencies
| Criteria | Organic | Inorganic |
| Competencies | Development of current “core competencies” | Development and acquisition of new competencies |
| Source | The source is the company itself | Along with internal competencies, competencies from the market are actively attracted |
| Development payback period | Brief | Consideration of competency development projects with medium- and long-term prospects for achieving payback |
| Criteria for making decisions about development | Strict financial decision-making criteria | Along with finances, market prospects in a few years and existing technological trends will play a decisive role. |
Source: compiled by the research team.
As the global experience of such giants as Intel, General Electric, Apple, Motorola, Thales, NorthorpGrumman and several others shows, the most important factor in competitiveness is the acquisition of new competencies as part of the implementation of inorganic innovation projects.
For example, Google’s innovation complex is presented as a set of separate research teams engaged in the development of new technologies and products that appear thanks to the unique corporate “20 percenttime” system. “20 percent time” is a company philosophy that allows employees to spend one day a week developing new projects outside of their immediate responsibilities. So, programmers should spend 80% of their time developing a search engine and advertising service, and the remaining 20% they can devote to their own projects. Managers must also innovate: it is necessary to devote 70% of their time to their main work, 20% to other projects related to their main work, and 10% to new directions and products.
Today, the company keeps strict records of such projects, since the company's management has already realized the value of such innovations. This is how Gmail and GoogleDocs were developed. The company's expenses on R&D amount to 3.7 billion per year (12.63% of revenues). Thus, specialists and entire teams develop competencies largely independently, in a decentralized manner.
As practice shows, any large company should implement its own system for supporting “inorganic competencies”, since it is possible to modify the set of key competencies over time, and the ability to grow or borrow new competencies from the market and define them as updated key ones is the basis for maintaining competitiveness.
There are a sufficient number of examples that clearly demonstrate the problems that arise in companies that have not updated their core competencies. For example, Kodak developed the first digital camera in 1975. However, Kodak management was categorically against such an invention - the camera did not require film, the sales of which brought the main profit to the company. This innovation was rejected, expensive research began to study the possibilities of digital photography, and as a result, a 10-year forecast was given to prepare the company for such a technological revolution. At the same time, the preparation strategy was to combine the capabilities of film cameras with digital technology. This turned out to be a failure, however, the company fell significantly behind its competitors and could no longer fill the gap. In this situation, the company should have proactively turned digital photography into a priority core competency, which Kodak did not take advantage of.
Another example of missed opportunities is Memorex, which in the second half of the 20th century was one of the most successful companies in the field of production of flexible magnetic 8-inch disks, which were widely used in computers. Memorex's lateness to the 5¼-inch floppy disks needed for word processors and the advent of PCs led to the collapse of the entire business, and Memorex was sold in the 1980s.
By 1960, the Swedish corporation Facit had taken a leading position in the mechanical calculator market. Facit's business came to an end when cheap, easy-to-use, compact electronic calculators from Japan began to spread in Europe and the United States. Already in 1973, Facit was acquired by Electrolux.
Modern corporations for the most part have already learned to avoid such negative developments by formulating the approach of “open innovation”
Competency management
The analysis of competencies carried out during the work allowed us to identify 4 main groups of competencies: organizational, managerial, technological and scientific-technical. Next, the characteristics of each group of competencies will be considered separately.
Competency management assumes that in the process of developing an organizational strategy, management should clearly determine which organizational competencies will be needed to implement this strategy. Organizational competence is a set of personnel competencies in combination with the organization's ability to achieve specific results. Examples of organizational competencies can be the ability of an organization to master the production of a new product at minimal costs for the industry, competencies in the field of creating foreign representative offices and branches, competencies in taking into account customer needs when developing a new product, etc.
The source of organizational competencies can be technical capabilities (for example, Sony's competency in producing miniature electronic equipment, which involves hundreds of people), marketing skills or organizational resources (for example, Coca-Cola's ability to meet the needs of people in almost all countries world in soft drinks and organization of uninterrupted supply), personnel qualifications (for example, the competence of McKinsey consultants - developing plans for strategic and organizational change).
Despite the fact that organizational competencies are long-term in nature and important for the development of an organization, it is important to understand that no organization can successfully develop over a long period of time without improving its own competencies and acquiring new ones.
Sources of formation of unique competencies - “internal” (in the company itself) and “external” (search for competencies on the market, competency exchanges) and methods for putting them into circulation
Only those factors that provide the company with significant threshold competitive advantages and cannot be easily copied by competitors are considered as internal and external competencies. Typically, creating such factors requires a fairly long period of time, as well as experience in a certain field.
Table 2. Sources of formation of internal and external competencies
| Internal competencies | External competencies |
| R&D (KNOW-HOW, unique technologies, ability to produce competitive products); | Relations with suppliers and consumers; |
| Well-established and effective business processes (project management, quality management, marketing, budgeting, staff motivation) | Lobbying opportunities (communications with government bodies); |
| Availability of qualified personnel | Ability to provide financing in the required amount, in the shortest possible time and at an acceptable cost (communication with financial institutions and investors) |
Instrumental and methodological basis:
ARIS platform, many years of experience in the field of process approach
Description
At the same time, the larger the enterprise becomes, and the greater the number of divisions it acquires, the more important it is to create and implement software products that take into account its industry specifics.
What problems will the creation of competency centers solve?
- Due to creation of unified centers of competence a timely response to external changes and the ability to implement solutions that help improve the efficiency of the business process in accordance with them are achieved.
- Our experts have more than 15 years of experience in creating unified competence centers in companies that are responsible for the development, implementation and monitoring of performance standards, implementation of a systematic approach to management and continuous improvement of company processes.
- The creation of competence centers means a range of services and solutions, including consulting on the management of an enterprise and its divisions, as well as the development of an effective methodology for interaction with partners through automation of processes and industry distribution.
- One of the most important goals of developing competency centers in enterprises is to reduce operational risks. This term refers to any erroneous actions of internal departments and specific employees, leading to waste of the budget and the occurrence of losses.
Reducing operational risks is the key to increasing business security
Reducing operational risks as part of the implementation of unified competence centers is the strict separation of functions when conducting transactions with internal and external customers. Thus, the competence center is able to monitor the actions of responsible persons, eliminating the possibility of any actions being taken without notifying other departments.
The functioning of competence centers is associated with daily monitoring of any ongoing operations at enterprises. Modern software products designed for the operation of such centers make it possible to create control environments that are simply impossible to bypass without confirming information.
Reducing operational risks is also achieved through the creation and implementation of action scenarios in unforeseen situations. The development of such scenarios is carried out on the basis of an analysis of the enterprise’s activities, taking into account the specifics of the business and based on the experience of other companies in a specific segment. Competence centers will systematically monitor operational risks, as well as monitor the actions of departments and evaluate the effectiveness of their activities.
Solvable business problems
The need for a targeted and systematic increase in the efficiency of the company’s activities
The need to ensure that company processes meet stakeholder requirements
The need to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the implementation of projects to improve the company’s critical processes
The need to improve the company's management system through the use of modern methodology, technologies and management tools
The need to ensure effective and efficient implementation, operation and development of methodology, technologies and management tools in the company
The need to reduce operational risks in the company’s activities by regulating activities and ensuring the adequacy and relevance of internal regulatory documents
The need for effective and coordinated change management of corporate architecture elements - business processes, internal regulations, information systems, organizational structure
results
reduction of total costs for implementing projects to improve and automate the company’s activities
the ability to respond to business changes in a timely manner and implement them in business processes
creation of a unified knowledge base about the company’s activities
application of a unified methodology for describing and improving processes
systematization of work to describe and improve processes
International experience in creating competence centers 1 Danilin Ivan Vladimirovich Head of the Innovation Policy Sector of the IMEMO RAS All-Russian conference on training personnel for the electric power industry “New generation for new energy” National Research University “MPEI”, April 18, 2012
Modern innovative activity involves the professionalization of each stage of life cycle. A side consequence of this phenomenon is the threat of a “gap” between the generation of knowledge in the scientific and educational community and the generation of technologies and practices in corporations. The most serious issue is in the area of creating the so-called. breakthrough technologies. A similar dilemma arises from the point of view of training technological personnel: education does not keep up with the market, knowledge quickly becomes outdated, there is a gap between the practice-oriented technological activities of Corporations and the science-oriented approach of universities. These and other problems give rise to the need for specialized cooperative forms and interfaces of cooperation between corporations and research universities. 2 Problems of implementing the Life Cycle of Innovation (ICI) in relation to the interests of the corporation Creation of breakthrough technologies and new practices Development of “subject-specific” technologies and products Replication / implementation Operation of LCI within the corporation Fundamental R&D Applied non-oriented R&D Applied oriented R&D LCI within the scientific and educational community
3 Support of scientific and educational activities in universities by corporations: foreign experience Scientific and educational areas of cooperation between corporations and universities closely intersect and are interconnected. course development and teaching; mentoring; financing students' research; scholarships and internships; financing of cooperative forms of R&D with the participation of students. ordering (contracting) R&D for advanced training of teachers; participation of corporations in the management of universities; Venture activities. endowments (endowment funds); charity; communication between specialists. research activities educational research activities R&D Personnel educational activities of universities and corporate educational centers recruiting research and educational activities In terms of innovative specialties and the development of advanced technologies, preference is given to either research and educational activities or educational research. Undirected forms: Addressed forms:
CC 4 Model of Competence Centers: response to the challenges of educational and “breakthrough” scientific and technological activities of Corporations One of the most convenient forms of solving the Corporation’s problems in the field of interaction with universities on breakthrough technologies and related personnel issues are Competence Centers (CC)* *Competence Center ( Central Committee) is a division, subsidiary or other organizational structure of a company where knowledge and competencies that are considered important are concentrated. The organization assumes the possibility of maintaining or developing competencies and using them throughout the corporation or its individual parts. The Central Committee at a university is an organizational structure created with the participation of the Company (or jointly by the company, universities, research institutes, etc.). Consists of the Company's R&D employees, university researchers, students (training through participation in R&D). Engaged in R&D on breakthrough technologies at the pre-competitive stage. Leading university researchers Masters, graduate students R&D employees of the Corporation 1. New breakthrough technologies and practices for the needs of the Corporation 2. Highly competent technological personnel ready to work with the problems of the Corporation Ideas, knowledge, flow of students and graduate students, materials base, funding (through grants, etc.) .) University Financing, equipment, technology, requirements, qualified order Corporation
The creation of Central Committees at universities is an established global trend. 5 Not to mention the largest technology corporations, many of the world's leading energy-related companies have long been creating their own Competence Centers at universities. The process has only accelerated due to the transition of the energy sector to new technological platforms. Abroad, the trend is actively supported by the state, incl. through the creation of similar specialized forms of organizing scientific, technological and scientific and educational activities (Energy Frontier Research Centers in the USA, Carnot Institutes in France, etc.).
Requirements for Central Committees created by Corporations on the basis of universities 6 Clear functionality (direction of work closely related to the Corporation’s R&D); Formation by the Corporation of a set of practical tasks; The Central Committee is results oriented; Participation of Corporation employees in the work and management of the Central Committee, participation in the management of the university; “Link” of the head of the Central Committee with a high-ranking representative of the Corporation - incl. from the R&D department); Mutual training between representatives of the corporation and the teaching staff of the university.
7 “Breakthrough” innovative development, incl. the creation of an intelligent energy system with an active-adaptive network requires new practices for organizing the scientific and educational process within the framework of interaction between the scientific and educational community and corporations; This task has a co-directed nature with other goals in the field of cooperation between the corporate and scientific and educational communities (including the formation of an institute of research universities); Although efforts are being made in Russia to solve these problems, they have not yet been solved; an increase in the effectiveness of efforts is required. The gap between science and business and related problems persist (achieving results and new practices ready for direct use by corporations, etc.); The format of Competence Centers turns out to be one of the most convenient for solving assigned tasks in Russia and at the same time meets modern requirements for innovative development. Conclusions for Russia
