MBA – One reason I’m happy to be doing it…

Yet another great learning experience today. We’re looking at Strategy and in particular how internal resources can help a company create sustainable competitiveness (compared to previous readings into the external environment).

The thing that has really struck home today has been how company resources can be judged on their value, rarity, inimitability and how well the organisation is structured to make best use of them.

Let me give you an example: ICT is a valuable resource to most firms – but computers aren’t rare these days. Software and Apps can be imitated at relatively low costs.

But ……this has been the best bit about today; any number of companies can have the same valuable resources, that are rare enough to provide a competitive advantage and costly to imitate or substitute BUT people are absolutely key. If YOUR people trust you,the organisation, and willingly commit it will be them that set you apart from competitors when all else is equal. How simple a concept – it doesn’t matter how technical your resources are, what your product is, where you sell it, when you bring it to market or why you chose to enter that market – if the people that you rely on to make it a success don’t trust or commit to your endeavours then everything else has been a waste. I love the human element (although not too keen on a career in HR I have to say). Helping people reach their potential. The challenge of developing a mutually supportive team, I could go on…..

There’s something fundamental – inherent in our DNA – that no technology, no models, frameworks or concepts can replace. So much more can be achieved by considering others, meeting people’s needs. It’s almost paradoxical that a business approach, aimed at creating profit, relies on such a primitive need that goes back to a time where money didn’t exist.

What can I make of it all – I’m not so blinded to think that people’s needs must and always can come first, there’s obviously a cost/benefit approach to be taken, but maybe if I can keep that thought at the front of my mind and work back to a compromise if I have to, then just maybe I can help whatever team I’m with achieve more than they thought possible, satisfy individual needs and help others reach their potential, and if I’m really lucky gain some satisfaction for myself in doing so – maybe even without the same strategic resources that a competitor has!