How does an organization leverage on internal capabilities for sustainable advantage?

Internal capabilities are crucial but Inside must be linked and re-aligned as many times as required with the Outside for it to become a competitive advantage. Business today has changed dramatically - 20 years ago, the Indian business environment was protected and stable, today it is full of noise and the rules of the game have changed considerably. Who would have imagined that the smaller players of yesterday would be swallowing bigger players? Today, the relevance is not about size of the organization alone but about the effectiveness and efficiency of strategies and their execution. There are many examples in India that demonstrate this trend - from Mittal buying Arcelor; to Tatas acquiring Corus and Jaguar and visibly, many more to come.
 

How does a company identify and nurture these core competencies?

What differentiates successful organizations is that their leaders are able to ‘begin with the end’ - they are able to look around, look beyond and look within at the same time. These leaders are able to hear the unheard sounds, they can see the unobvious and they can synthesize the outside and the inside. Their companies are able to achieve these milestones, not because they were large organizations compared to other MNCs, but because they implemented their strategies in both ways - from the inside and the outside. The organization communicated with the outside world that they are ambitious for expanding... and inside the organization, leaders communicated how to achieve these milestones and engage them in to a larger purpose. In today’s business environment, technology, access to capital, processes, customer service is a commodity. What is not replicable is dedication and commitment of the people delivering those processes.