Impact of Core Competence and Sustainability of Business

Subject: Management
Pages: 80
Words: 18612
Reading time:
65 min
Study level: Master

Introduction

This dissertation is about the core competencies and the sustainable business strategies which should be applied to the environment of all the organizations in the world to enhance the overall performance and boost up their revenue generation. This chapter is the starting statement or point for this dissertation and would be covering the introductory portion. This chapter would help the reader very much to understand the basic concepts of the starting of the document.

In this chapter, we would be explaining the background of the main theme of the dissertation, the importance of study which would highlight why we have chosen this topic for the dissertation, the research questions which would be answered systematically below, the limitations of the study which are normally present in almost every dissertation with the external and internal factors affecting the dissertation to be limited, and last but not the least would be the organization of the study. Organization of study would include the research objective of the dissertation in which we would be explaining that on which field or company or country we are focusing our dissertation.

The topic on which the dissertation would be carried out is very important for the present age. It’s about the impact of core competencies and the sustainability of the business. For this topic, the main focus would be paid to every section. For every business, competition is the big game which is played by everyone present in the field. Starting from the businessman who is the owner of the business to the new clerk or fresh employee of the company, the business must run with full strength and high performance in order t gain the attention of the customers in the marketplace and prove its existence globally.

Background of Impact of Core Competency and Sustainable Business

(Godbout, 2000) We see lots of huge companies and multinational organizations around us daily and we see them progressing enormously with high revenue generation and gradual enhancement in the overall performance of their businesses. As stated above, competition is present for every business around us. The main objective of every business which is run by organizations is to make huge profits and prove their existence better than others in a lively sense with high performance with the help of the strategies set by the senior management and goals met by the employees and teams.

The main objective of every business is to run a sustainable business with the help of the management, employees, and teams present in the organization. Not every organization succeeds in getting this achievement so far because there is a lot of competition present around. Different organizations come up with similar products for their customers and then they compete with each n other to beat up the other in respect of revenue and try their best to prove their unique identity and existence in the marketplace better than their competitors. Only because of this factor present in the marketplace, dramatic changes are occurring on a global basis in the organizations.

According to Godbout (2000), it has been observed that a large proportion of such activities have a great impact on the enhancement and use of intellectual assets the organization owns and most of all, on the development of core competence and sustainability of the business. The efficient core competencies and sustainability which a business possesses are the results of the premeditated and preplanned activities and strategies of the management of the company.

For this purpose, the management of the organization goes into several unexplained hard works and noteworthy remarkable transformations. The main reason for success till this point lies in the redefinition of the main ambitions and concepts of the core competencies and sustainability units of the business development into specific architectures (Hammel, Prahalad; 1996).

As discussed by Hammel, Prahalad (1996); the main objective of every running business nowadays is to survive with full fledge productivity and stream of work along with the productivity shown by the employees and management of the company which could help the organization in lending 100% customer satisfaction to the business and annual revenue of the company. Things and patterns of the businesses keep changing over time and so does happens to the companies.

Previously, the main focus of the organizations was to lay great stress on the product or services provided by the company and to keep a speedy competition with the competitor organizations present in the marketplace. But over time, the whole cycle has changed and the main concern of every business-owned company is to focus on the customer base by providing the best level of service available for the targeted customers by developing their task forces and by improving the customer services and customer service staff.

This theory was changed after observing the psychology of the customers because people usually go for the product or service which is provided to them with the best availability and great friendly gesture. This helps in retaining not only the old customers but also helps organizations in achieving new customers under the flag of their unique product present among other competitors (Godbout, 2000).

Importance of Study

(Hammel, Prahalad; 1996) This study is of great importance for the business purpose and has been conducted to understand the basic impact of core competence and sustainability of the business. It is very important to understand what is the factor and significance of core competencies and sustainability of the business. According to the observations of Rainey (2006), core competence is very critical in the success factor of any business, because it can be stated as the foundation of a business on which the strategies, rules and regulations, and plans are made to develop the total performance and revenue generation of the business.

The same is the case with the sustainability of the business because it helps in the smooth operation of the business and the high growth of the business expectations as well as the overall performance of it. The importance of core competence and sustainability of business would be highlighted in this dissertation because it let the reader know what the exact standing of both is when it comes to aspects of business growth and expenditure.

Core competence and business sustainability are of crucial importance to the global business society. Both help in the smooth future growth and strengthen powerful capabilities of the business environment and characteristics. Sustainability and core competence of business helps in determining the exact position of the company and examines where and when the core competence exists not only within the organization but also outside the corporate environment of the company.

This dissertation will help the reader in evaluating and identifying the relationship between the core competence and sustainability factor present in every business. The need to do carry this point in this dissertation was raised because organizations have changed their way and niche of operations all around the globe. They have developed themselves in several particular areas in which they could raise their voice and show their capabilities among other competitors present where they could prove their existence proudly in the marketplace with the high level of developed, deployed, and exploited core competence.

Through this level of competence, organizations can easily get the target of becoming matured business specialized parties where they could be considered as sustainable business running organizations. This is the technique adopted by several multinational organizations and those companies who intend to become famous multinational organizations with flying colors. (Gutierrez, 2003) The main reason why the management of several companies are adopting the strategy to become competent and sustainable in respect of business is that the customer needs and customer views have changed with time.

Previously, the expectations of targeted customers were different as of today. Now, according to the current inspections and study, the customers expect more than before and it is the basic necessity of every business running the organization to reach the maximum level of satisfaction of their customers. Many companies who have changed according to their customer’s needs and requirements have succeeded with high performance and revenue ratios.

Companies keep evolving and changing their management and marketing strategies and the product characteristics just because they want to reach up to the mark set by their customers and so that they could develop competencies to be remarkably known and reached by their customers. This is why companies try their best to become core competent; they need help to become sustainable in respect of business and performance (Gutierrez, 2003).

The objective of the Study

The main objective of this dissertation is to understand the importance and impact of core competence and the sustainability of the business. Core competence is significantly the main element of success in any business and to become competent, organizations need to be sustainable enough with respect to business, performance, and growth. As explained by Anjana (2002), the prospective and bright future of every business running organization sustainable competitive depends mainly on the correct usage of its resources and capabilities which are brought forward by the management, employees, and teams of the company.

The whole competitive advantage relies on the use of the resources and the capabilities of the company. The core competence of any organization and the sustainability of business are carried out mutually with the help of strategic planning, strategic flexibility, organizational learning, and proper use of modern technology by the management and employees; and the people who are involved in the development of the organization.

(Gutierrez, 2003) Internal capabilities and set of skills have always been critical for businesses, this idea is not new at all. What makes it easy is the proper planning and strategic opportunity use which helps the organization in extending the internal capabilities and mixing it with the external factors of capabilities and skills set, and then present it to the customers with full confidence with the help of the employees and teamwork. Therefore, the good management of the company has to take care of all the challenges calmly and develop the practical evaluation to the company’s sustainability with its strategies.

Core competence and sustainability of the business are of great importance for every business when it comes to the global corporate environment because they cover the critical skills and knowledge required for the proper cycle of a business procedure to look after the regulations and processes practiced in the corporate business. They are the backbone of every business through which the ultimate culture, rules, beliefs, values, practices, and methods are evaluated of the business. All these factors mutually represent the overall performance of the company which provides sustainability and stability to the business run by the organization Anjana (2002).

Another objective of this dissertation would be represented in the research section of the document where a case study would be discussed briefly. This research literature is carried out on the business development of the automotive and turbine sectors not only on a global basis but in the major aspects of Africa and the United Kingdom.

This dissertation will also cover the qualitative research based on six (6) unstructured interviews of six (6) different individuals hailing from different parts of the world. These participants belong to different homelands such as one from London city, one from Scotland, Nigeria, Germany, Mexico, and France respectively.

Research Objectives

There are some research objectives that should be known to every reader before proceeding ahead. These research objectives are of great importance and are listed as under:

  • To know the concept of core competence of business and how they fit into the operational structure of an organization
  • To know the meaning of sustainability of business and how they are used in the company
  • To know the importance of core competence of the business
  • To know the importance of sustainability of the business
  • To identify the relationship between core competence and sustainability of business in detail
  • To evaluate all the major impacts of core competence and sustainability of the business
  • To identify customer requirements and the different core competencies accordingly within each industry
  • Comparing and contrasting the changes brought forward by differing core competencies and sustainability of business in an organizational professional environment
  • To analyze the aspects through which an organization could improve further by using the proper guideline provided by core competencies and sustainability of the business
  • To identify the means through which an organization could improve its performance as a whole
  • To judge the impact of core competence and sustainability of business in terms of theory on business
  • To relate the theory of core competence of business to analyze the extent to which they have impacted on, or are impacting on the sustainability of the business as a whole
  • To identify the barriers of adoption of core competence and sustainability of business in the field of automotive and turbine business, and to make recommendations for the future
  • Assessing the situation of core competence and sustainability of business in the countries of the United Kingdom and Africa in terms of business of turbines and automotive

Research Questions

With the help of this dissertation and the research carried out, the following questions should be answered accordingly in several sections.

  • How does the core competence of business fit into the operational structure of an organization?
  • How sustainability of the business is used in the professional environment of a company
  • What is the importance of the core competence of the business?
  • What is the importance of sustainability of the business?
  • What is the relationship between core competence and sustainability of the business?
  • What are the major impacts of core competence and sustainability of the business?
  • What are the customer requirements and the different core competencies accordingly within each industry?
  • How the changes brought forward by differing core competencies and sustainability of business helps in perfect working in an organizational professional environment
  • What are the aspects through which an organization could improve further by using the proper guideline provided by core competencies and the sustainability of the business?
  • What are the means through which an organization could improve its performance as a whole
  • What is the impact of core competence and sustainability of business in terms of theory on business?
  • Ho can we relate the theory of core competence of business to analyze the extent to which they have impacted on, or are impacting on the sustainability of the business as a whole
  • How the barriers of adoption of core competence and sustainability of business in the field of automotive and turbine business can be identified
  • What is the situation core competence and sustainability of business in the united kingdom and Africa in terms of business of turbines and automotive?
  • What are the recommendations for the future in terms of core competencies and sustainability of the business, especially for the united kingdom and Africa, including the entire world?

Limitations of Study

There are several limitations that are faced by the core competence and sustainability of the business. These limitations are many but some of the major limitations can be viewed as under:

  • Scarcity of the right management strategic plans in the company
  • Different organizational structures and organizational behaviors
  • The reluctance of the management in adopting the organizational changes which are brought forward for the customer’s interest and demands
  • Different cultural, capabilities, skills, regions, values, and fields differences present in the organizations
  • Wrong interpretation of the results of commonly used procedures in the organization
  • Information provided by the managers does not meet or reflect the views and opinions of employees who are affected by the application of core competence in general
  • Good metrics and accurate reporting of the operations does not guarantee that the company is moving in the sustainable business format
  • Technology innovations may occur as a limitation to the old system of the business
  • Political and economic conditions or new policies introduced by the government may affect the business environment of the company and its financial conditions and could react as a limitation to the growth of the business
  • Functioning of legal framework and process, security of the business environment, and enforceability of contracts may affect the core competence and sustainability of the business of the organization

Significance of the Study

A growing business is the backbone of every country’s better economic and financial conditions. Different multinational companies invest in different countries to extend their business operations and to generate a good reputation with huge revenue ratios. Every country exerts its full strength and capabilities to attract foreign investment to its homeland so that as much financial aid could be brought to the country as possible. Africa and the United Kingdom are some of the continents that are giving highly focused stress and efforts to promote their business continental wise. All the countries in the United Kingdom and Africa are putting all their efforts to catch the center attention of the investing parties to promote their turbine and automotive industry (Franke, 2002).

In this dissertation, we would be taking the United Kingdom and Africa as our central research countries and the businesses whose core competence and sustainability would be analyzed and measured are turbine and automotive businesses.

According to BBC News (2007), Africa is a huge continent with as many as 53 countries and all the countries of the continent Africa are striving and struggling while putting full stream of work to highlight themselves among other countries in respects of business growth and performance revenue growth. The countries of Africa, such as Central Africa, Eastern, and Southern Africa, including Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Libya, Egypt, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Ivory Coast, and others are trying to modernize their infrastructure of different countries so that they could attract the foreign investment into their homelands. (Franke, 2002)

Government has paid extra attention and focus to the people and is trying to teach them the new ways to live professionally by adopting the professional modernized ways of life. With so much hard work, Africa is developing with the help of its people and the organizations which are setting their infrastructure in Africa. Most of the large part of the industrial and business sector in Africa is consumed and dominated by large diversified groups of companies.

With this stream of work, Africa has seen rapid growth of enhancement in the companies. But these companies who are already set up or settling their set-ups in Africa have to be core competence with a sustainable ratio of growth and performance. Nonetheless, Africa has seen tremendous growth in the automotive and turbine sectors. It has invited all sorts of designers, students, and professionals to come and join the campaign to promote the African heritage and African business commodity overall globally.

All of these business-oriented organizations are not only stabilizing the sustainable economic growth graph value of Africa but are also helping the continent to reduce the ratio of poverty and poor from the continent. This trend of developing sustainable business and core competence in the businesses of several companies in Africa is not only encouraged on a global basis but is promoted by the United Nations as well (Franke, 2002).

The second country involved in this dissertation’s research is the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom usually consists of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. It is considered among the developed countries of the world and is an active member of the European Union. (Ricketts, 2002) The business commodity of the United Kingdom is huge in every sense and it is involved in many types of international business-oriented organizations.

Many multinational organizations have resided in the United Kingdom. Therefore, we can say that the business market of the United Kingdom is doing well in the global marketplace. As the developed world develops further, so do the companies and businesses evolve. That is why the sheer volume of core competence and sustainability in business is highly required by almost every business even in the United Kingdom. Increasing numbers of industrial businesses are getting involved to get more exposure and revenue generation which could enhance the economic value of the entire kingdom. Some of the business sectors which have been very beneficial for the United Kingdom are the turbine and automotive commodities.

Both of these business sectors are custom-built business fields that offer high-quality professional living to the public sector as well. but as time passes, there are several amendments and changes that emerge which determines that only those companies would survive these rapid changes and keep growing in respect of performance and revenue with a good reputation who cope up with the time with developed core competence and sustainability of the business. The increase in the turbine and automotive industry has not only paved the way for new challenges for the companies but also has allowed them to extend their resources and give way for more job vacancies, professionalism, and space for improvement (Blackburn, 2007).

Conclusion

As discussed above, this section explains the basic understanding and main points of the whole dissertation. It includes the topics and points which would be answered in the further sections. It also explains the main research which would be carried out and the literature review. The objective, research questions, and the significance of the study have already been mentioned which would be discussed in full detail in the coming sections.

Literature Review

Introduction

This is a very important section for the whole dissertation. The topic of the dissertation says “Impact of Core Competence and Sustainability of Business”. So, in this section, the whole review of core competence and sustainability of business development would be covered which would include the basic meanings of core competence and business sustainability, their impact on the business environment and how do they help in leading the business to success and what factors of core competence and sustainability of business helps the organizations in reaching to that success point. That is why this section is known as the literature review because it helps the reader in understanding what literature is being used in the whole study and what is the importance of this literature for the case study. The case study of this topic is the core competence and sustainability of turbine and automotive businesses in the United Kingdom and Africa.

Framework for Review

In this section, we would be discussing the literature involved in the dissertation according to the topic mentioned. These topics would be discussed briefly and are listed in the following:

  • The core competence of the business
    • Approaches of core competence of the business
    • Understanding the concept of core competence
    • Characteristics of core competence
    • The accomplishment of core competence
    • Core competence in the organizational structure
    • Risks involved in ignoring core competence in business development
    • Barriers in adopting core competence
  • Sustainability of business
    • Model of sustainability
    • Objectives of sustainability
    • Principles of sustainability
    • The behavior of sustainable business running organizations
  • Impact of core competence and sustainability of the business
  • Key findings from the literature review
  • The limitations faced

Understanding the Concept of Core Competence of Business

As discussed by Gutierrez (2003), core competence is of great importance for every business. When we say core competence, it means the fundamental set of skills, abilities, capabilities, knowledge, or expertise which is required for being specialized in a particular area or subject. Competence is the skills, knowledge, or capabilities present for being the master of a specific field. But when the word “core” is associated with the term “competence”, it means strong and immeasurable power of knowledge. The word competence is stronger when it is referred to as core competence.

(1000ventures.com, 2008) Core competence is the strategic business skills and capabilities of any business-oriented organization which acknowledges the company with several marketplace niche advantages and competitive edges to its competitors. The whole model of an organization can be considered as dependent on the core competencies of the business. It not only drives the growth ratio graph of the company but also takes care of the expanding pattern of the entire business environment of that particular organization. A business cannot be considered as growing and performing well without the help of the core competencies of the business. The whole process of core competencies verification and identification has been undergone by the organizations who have practiced it thoroughly and evenly.

As stated word-to-word by Hamel and Prahalad and quoted by Franke (2002) in his book, core competence can be defined as:

“Core Competency is the collective learning in the organization, especially how to coordinate diverse production skills and integrate multiple streams of technologies.”

Sustainable Competitive Advantage

It is because of the core competence of business which helps the company in subtle operation of the business and contributes to the unique identification of the entire enterprise. Core competence of business should never be mistakenly mixed or misunderstood with the simple and ordinary organizational behavior and skills set because of the fact that core competence has been simple for the company as it is of highly complexity in respects of nature. It is the mixture of corresponding and balancing skills set of knowledge present in a team or a group which makes it easy at the end to present a more superior product over other products of the competitors present in the marketplace.

Approaches of Core Competence of Business

(Hammel, Prahalad; 1996) There are two different and unique approaches of core competence of business which are explained as under:

  1. To analyze and describe all the important responsibilities strategically. This approach not only guarantees the success of that particular tasks but also helps the company in sustainable existing factor of the business
  2. To measure the specialized skills and prospective effects of the organization and then defining the future responsibilities and tasks while following a very creative set of procedures

Understanding the Concept of Core Competence in Three Steps

(Hammel, Prahalad; 1996) There are certain distinctiveness points through which we can easily understand the core competence of business very easily in step format. These unique points explained the concept of core competence as under:

  • Core competence of business should extend the ratio of opportunities for others
  • Core competence makes a uncompetitive contribution to the stakeholder strength
  • Core competence must deliver an unmatched and unique combination of explicit and tacit set of skills and knowledge which cannot be followed or copied by other competitors

Core Competence

Last but not the least; the procedural cycle of how core competence should be set in the organizational structure is listed as under (Godbout, 2000):

  • Recognizing and verifying the existing core competence of the company
  • Planning on new core competencies and establishing them in the organizational structure
  • Structuring the cycle of core competence
  • Implementing the planned core competencies
  • Preventing the newly shaped core competencies

Characteristics of Core Competence

(Gutierrez, 2003) There are four main characteristics of competence which are listed in the following bullets:

  • Transparency.
  • Transferability.
  • Durability.
  • Replicability.

Accomplishment of Core Competence

The unique accomplishments of core competence which every organizations gets in return are (Gutierrez, 2003):

  • Enhances the customer value and achieves customer satisfaction.
  • Gains the trust of new customers which helps in growing the new customer platform while retaining the old customer base.
  • Helps the organization in creating new commodities of business, products and services for the customers with unmatchable unique variety of new products and services.
  • Facilitates the organization in strengthen the business base while delivering fundamental customer beneficial end to the clients base.
  • Assists the business in acknowledging the work inputted by the teams involved and creating sustainable competitive advantage while giving a competitive niche edge to its competitors present in the marketplace.

Core Competence in the Organizational Structure

(Hammel, Prahalad; 1996) Core competence actually helps the business and the whole organizational structure in many ways. The benefits which are caused to the organizational structure of a company by the help of core competence are explained as under:

  • Introduces innovation in the organizational structure.
  • Allocates the resources available to the company properly.
  • Enhances network sustainability.
  • Safeguards the capabilities and qualities owned by the specialized products of the company could not be copied by other products present in the market.
  • Ensures the safety of the products and services of the company; so that other products of different competitors could not eliminate the company’s properties and products.

Risks Involved in Ignoring Core Competence in Business Development

(Hammel, Prahalad; 1996) There are some risks involved which are related to the ignorance of core competence. These risks are:

  • If the role of core competence in business development would e ignored, the business would face the risk of lacking capabilities in performance and growth of the business
  • If sometime, the organization decides to divide the business into small fragments, the business would face a disaster because there would not be any competencies which could take care of the small units
  • The business would face desensitizing from the dependent outside suppliers of the main products of the organization
  • New business opportunities would face problem in their introduction into the organization because their core competencies would be matched by other units already present in the company
  • The company who has not marked its core competencies may face various challenges from the new entrants in the marketplace because their core competencies would be present in other new business entrants
  • The organization may face the loss of valuable skills set and opportunities as a whole

Barriers in Adopting Core Competence

We certainly have no doubt in accepting the importance of core competence in business development but there are certain barriers which are present while implementing core competence and sustainability in the organizational structure. These barriers are listed in the following:

  • Organizational behavior could be at times react as the barrier to the implementation of core competence because several employees might not agree with the terminologies and strategies of core competence and could refrain from it, resulting as a hurdle for the company
  • Lack of employee skills
  • Lack of tacit and explicit knowledge
  • Ignorance of the employees from the competitive edge
  • Misunderstanding of value creation of brands by the employees, customers or stakeholders
  • Lack of human capital, customer capital, and structural capital

Understanding the Concept of Sustainability in Business

Business could be the source of bringing direct or indirect all sorts of challenges to the business running parties and for the employees working within the organizations running particular or different businesses but it is a fact that the only source which is left in the world right now that could handle the challenges faced to the mankind is business sustainability (Galea, 2004).

Sustainability of business can be described as the characteristic and quality of a state or procedure which could help the corporate business to run indefinitely on a specific desired level (Galea, 2004). A business is supposed to be sustainable if it accomplishes its targeted goals with the help of its employees and teamwork and operates by following the socially manners while protecting the environment around itself.

To introduce and embed sustainability in business could be hard and challenging at times but it could be achieved if the business is aligned and directed in the right direction. The key to success in aligning the organization to work with sustainability is to combine the learning goals with that of the stated strategic business objectives which are expressed and outlined as predictable outcomes of the business.

The whole process to apply sustainability in business requires a lot of hard work to put into along with the challenged involved around because of the competitors edge factor and the rather advancements which are embedding in the daily routine with the passage of time and customers are adopting these new advancements very frequently (Galea, 2004). This creates competitive edge to almost every business running organizations and companies are focusing on the customer base as well as on the sustainability of business in order not only to meet the customer demands, but also to improve their product and services and keep the sustainability of business characteristic alive. All these things need the picture perfect of integrated business system on location with the sustainable new objectives of the business.

Proper understanding of the organizational behavior and environment is essential before implementing sustainability in business. It is the basic requirement of the business sustainability to teach everyone present in the organization about the rules and regulations and the objectives of the business and what would be the future planned outlined strategy of the company. Everyone should know that what are the practices of the business and what are the principles followed in the organization (Edwards, Orr; 2005).

In short, sustainability can be explained as the pro-active advanced move of business which makes sure the proper flow of long-term feasibility and capability of business integrity by optimizing the resources available, reducing environmental risks, saving the energy and social impacts while proper management of resources available; which as a whole would help the company to move ahead with uncompromising product quality, overall business profitability and organizational revenue generation.

“Universities have always existed to nurture healthy communications and economies through education. But today, more than ever before, universities are realizing that they also need to set positive social, environmental, and economic examples for their societies to follow”

-The University of British Columbia Sustainability Office

Model of Sustainability

Model of Sustainability

  1. Alignment of Business
  2. Knowledge of Sustainability
  3. Organizational and Personal Leadership capabilities
  4. Systems thinking
  5. Enabling process and technologies

Model of Sustainability

Objectives of Sustainability

There are three basic objectives which should be known to understand sustainability. These objectives are (Edwards, Orr; 2005):

  • Understanding the set of processes, principles and procedures and the science beneath sustainability
  • Getting these outlined principles, processes and procedures prepared and before the implementation of sustainability in the business
  • Implementing these principles, processes and procedures into the business environment and showing how to integrate with them as a whole

Blackburn (2007) exerts his views that sustainability of business directly affects the operations of the organization and helps in enhancing revenue growth, sales graph, reputation and business risk along with the efficiency level of the company. Sustainability directly helps in determining the business value and the future prospects of the company in general and on vast expenditures.

Principles of Sustainability

There are many principles of sustainability and the main principles can be seen as under (Blackburn, 2007):

  • Healthy and profound lifestyle
  • Protection and improvement in the environment
  • Sense of community
  • Sense of place
  • Racial diversity
  • Economic diversity
  • Energy conservation
  • Well-organized and expedient means of transportation
  • Efficient learning
  • Long-term means of education
  • Artistic and visual design
  • High unmatchable quality of construction
  • Stability in terms of financial value of the business

Behavior of Sustainable Business Running Organization

The behavior pattern which should be followed by a business with sustainability abilities are listed as under (foe.co.uk, 2008):

  • Adapt sustainability as the core strategic objective
  • Ability to promote fair rules and regulation in order to ensure competitive advantage
  • Align the rules and regulations in such an order which could ensure safe environment and promote eco-efficiency
  • Adopt most advance but cleaner technology which could be beneficial for the business as well as for the environment
  • Localize their network sustainability
  • Increase the number of trainings and investment in order to promote motivation
  • Ensure the paying wages helps the employees to live with developed living standards
  • Make sure that proper use of human rights and non-discrimination is observed in the company
  • Involve employees in the important decision making or new policies for the company
  • Provide useful transparent information to all investors or stakeholders involved in the business and including them in the important events going on in the organization

Impact of Core Competence and Sustainability of Business

We have discussed the importance of core competence and sustainability of business separately. Now, we would discuss their mutual impact on business as a whole.

As discussed by Andriessen (2003), core competence and sustainability of business helps the organization grow with rapid speed and ultimate success factor while paving way for the company to prove its existence over other competitors in the marketplace. The core competence and sustainability is very important and helps the organization in making long-term decisions and huge investments because the management of the company already would have measured the success ratio of the future strength of the business with the support of core competence and sustainability of business. They assist the company in measuring the success factor for the better future of the company.

Core competence and sustainability of business helps in getting five major areas of business. These standards are listed below (Andriessen, 2003):

  • Added value
  • Competitiveness
  • Prolonged performance
  • Potential
  • Robustness

Together, core competence and sustainability are giving a hand to the business in reaching to the economic and social prosperity. They facilitate the relationship and communication between the market and the democracy. Not only has this but core competence and sustainability of business responsibly directs the business of the organization to the beneficial side while giving it competitive advantage over the other competitors present in the marketplace and by directing it to a sustainable level of development as a whole (Rainey, 2006).

The core competence and sustainability of business recognizes the strategy for innovative ways, cultivates resources and organizational capabilities, implementation of business strategies, integration of business process, procedures and units into productive form, managing the organizational environment with smooth low of operations and business. All these factors result in sustainable development and growth of business while giving core competence to the business as well. It helps and encourages the organization in leading the business with sustainability and core competence while managing the employees, customers, stakeholders, and society.

(1000ventures.com, 2008) Core competence and sustainability have become the success factor of almost every business because of the reason that the main objective of every organization is to attain its vision and targeted goals set ahead for the future which can be achieved with the help of specializes skills in the particular products and services (known as the core competence) the organization deals in with sustainable development (referred as sustainability).

These factors mainly derive the business of the organization to the path of achievement where the company could enjoy smooth flow of operations while moving ahead with tall the objectives achieved with the help of these regulations and the employees and teams involved in the working force of the enterprise. This directly enhances the entire business value and minimizes the risk factor involved.

A core competent and sustainable outlook or perception along with a differently changed way of thinking directly impacts the business by allowing broader authority and opportunities for the business to grow with higher improved business values.

Key Findings from the Literature Review

As discussed in this section, it has been found from the literature review section that core competence and sustainability is of great importance for the sustain development of any business or organization. Core competence is basically the strategic specialized skills in a particular area which enables the organization to have a niche end and give competitive edge to other competitors present in the marketplace.

It not only helps the company in smooth operation flow of business and contributes to the unmatchable identification of the entire organizational infrastructure. Two approaches of core competence have also been discussed in the above section. Sustainability of business is yet another element which helps business in smooth and on-going development along with the assistance of core competence. Sustainability is the excellence of a product or service which an organization owns and through which the company runs on indefinite specific desired level.

A company is said to follow sustainability if it accomplishes the targeted objectives and goals by following the social manner while protecting the social activities and environment around its surroundings. Application of core competence and sustainability could be difficult and very challenging for the management, but it is worth the results because the final results are always very encouraging for the entire organization and directs the whole organization and its teams to the path of success and prosperity.

We can say that the development and prosperity of an organization is dependent upon core competence and sustainability of business if the company strategies and procedures are directed in the right direction for the betterment of the entire business. Core competence and sustainability enables the organization to extend and take ahead its business while giving competitive advantage to the company and competitive edge to its competitors present in the marketplace.

Other benefits that an organization can achieve with the help of core competence and sustainability are listed as under:

  • Promotes good reputation of the business
  • Helps in collective learning and teamwork of the company
  • Ensures diverse coordination and productive skills
  • Helps in integrating multiple streams of work and technologies
  • Undertakes capabilities, skills, and resources available to the organization and gives superior value creation as outcome
  • Ensures unique identification of the company
  • Cultivates subtle operation of the enterprise
  • Extends ratio of opportunities for other employees to exert their best capabilities and give best output
  • Contributes to uncompetitive stakeholder strength
  • Enhances customer value
  • Increases customer satisfaction ratio
  • Helps in gaining the trust of new customers
  • Retains the old customer base
  • Helps the organization to introduce new range and variety of different and unique business commodities
  • Future aspects of organization prosperity and growth can be measured way before time
  • Future of the organizational development can be foreseen with the help of core competence and sustainability
  • Helps in nurturing safer environment of the business community
  • Promotes clean political atmosphere
  • Guarantees better product quality of the products and services the business is dealing with
  • Social and economic values are improved of the business of the organization
  • Improves the organizational ad personal leadership capabilities of the company
  • Enables the company to run real-time processes and procedures
  • Business results are predicted before time
  • Stability is observed in terms of financial value of the business
  • Ensures prolonged performance

The Limitations Faced

The limitations which were faced while collecting the above information are explained below:

  • The information provided by different sources and websites collide at times, which took extra time to combine all and get the final desired authentic information from the reliable sources
  • Many referred books in this section were hard to find and consumed a lot of hard work to find and combine the information from all of them

Conclusion

As explained above, core competence and sustainability of business allows the utmost development and success of any organization. It not only helps in developing the entire form of the business but also helps in improving the overall quality of the products and services the company deals in. apart from that, core competence and sustainability helps in foreseeing the performance and success factor of the organization which helps a lot in every way possible.

Research Methodology

Introduction

In the last two sections, core competence and sustainability of business and their impact on the business was discussed in detail. As explained in the introductory part, the case study would be used for the main topic, that is, impact of core competence and sustainability of business.

In this section, the research methodology used would be described with entire criteria research. The research methodology used in this dissertation is the case study according to which business of automotive and turbine industry in the United Kingdom and Africa would be discussed and analyzed. It is the unique and different aspect of research element of this dissertation which would revolve around the core competence of organizations in the automotive and power generation sector in the United Kingdom and Africa region.

How to Conduct Research

Research is the background work that you do before commencing any work on the project given to you. This is known as the background research that supports your work and acknowledges the efforts put by you in the project. There are two types of background research:

Primary Research

According to Dawson (2002), this type of research involves the in-depth investigation and observation of the project you have been assigned. It is a straight forward and easy to use method. The sources through which primary research would be carried out are listed below:

  • Questionnaires
  • Surveys
  • Personal meetings with officials
  • Meeting with customers and people involved in the research
  • Doing market research
  • Study of records

Secondary Research

This type of research includes usage of the sources and methods available to the researcher. The information which is collected in this type of research could be gathered from (Schneider, Elliott Whitehead, LoBiondo-Wood, Haber; 2007):

  • the Internet
  • Libraries
  • Books
  • Business Journals
  • General Publications, and
  • Any medium available easily to the researcher

The Case Study and Research Method Used

For this dissertation, we have been given to evaluate the core competence and sustainability business factor of the automotive and power industry turbine business industry in the United Kingdom and Africa. These are some of the largest business commodities in the world and we chose it because it has got reliable information which could be collected authentically and would be helpful in learning as well as useful for the readers also.

The research method used in this study is a mixture of both the primary and secondary research, since we have used the information available on the internet, from the library books, business and economic journals, E-Books, people, personal meetings, questionnaires and surveys.

Case Study

Automotive Industry in the United Kingdom

According to Ricketts (2002), the United Kingdom needs no introduction for the popularity and good reputation it holds all around the globe for its liberal culture, unique standard of living, development and prosperity. It holds one of the biggest and busiest cities of the world, that is, the London city. Apart from all the famous industries it holds in its homeland, automotive is yet another industry in which the United Kingdom is famous for the unique texture of designs and innovative technology.

The automotive industry in the United Kingdom has gained popularity while improving its competitive edge over the competitors present in the global marketplace and exploits the financial business opportunities for the United Kingdom industry in Europe and all around the world.

The automotive industry in the United Kingdom can be viewed as highly flexible, versatile, dynamic and extended industry. The region of the united kingdom has improved the product quality and adapted advanced technology with the rapid growth of technology with the passage of time and the globally changes taking place from time to time. Customers basically need a huge variety of every thing to select from. So is the case with the automotive base industry which initiates that customers needs and wants to see a variety of many vehicles so that he could select from all these different kinds of vehicles for him. This is because customer would always look for the best mobility option available with the minimum timely access to them (Ricketts, 2002).

In the United Kingdom, a lot of advancement has been observed in the last two decade with respects of automotive industry especially. It has included all sorts of activities which includes of research modeling, manufacturing vehicles, designing innovative designs and technologies according to the demands and needs of the customers, refueling and maintenance, recycling, core manufacturing, distribution and supply chain management.

Apart from all these facilities and advancements, the United Kingdom holds the degree of manufacturing vehicle base with car manufacturers and producers such as, Ford, BMW, Nissan, Honda, Toyota, GM and many others. These internationally known manufactures are capable to provide the entire region with master-pieces like the Jaguar, Land Rover, MINI, and Vauxhall. Other manufacturers include Leyland Trucks, LDV, Renault, Komatsu, Terex, JCB, Caterpillar and many others.

As calculated by the SMMT.co.uk (2008) for the year 2006, the automotive industry of the United Kingdom paved way for 200,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector while giving way to more 580,000 job vacancies in the areas of sales, servicing, refueling, pumping, maintaining and many other services aligned with the automotive sector. Not only this, but the United Kingdom was able to produce more than 1.65 million personal and commercial use transportation vehicles for the people which resulted in the finalized more than 200 billion worth of pounds business through out the year in the 2006.

As a whole, the United Kingdom has seen immeasurable tremendous growth in the automotive industry since the last decade. Not only this, but the entire region of the United Kingdom is continuously working with the new advancements made in the automotive industry and adapting these challenges, new technologies and commercial regulatory. The industry has gone through the pressure of high costs and fuel prize trauma but every organization involved with the automotive industry is making their own significant efforts to minimize this effect.

The main focal point of the automotive industry is to provide new technology and innovative trends to the customers while saving the environment, making eco-safe vehicles which could not only consume less amount of energy, but also give high mileage to the customers while reducing the changing climate conditions and the CO2 effects of the environment. All these efforts of the automotive organizations would directly help to the economic condition of the entire region of United Kingdom (Nieuwenhuis, Wells; 2003).

Comparative performance of the automotive industry could be understood by the following graph:

Performance of Auto Industry in 2006.
Performance of Auto Industry in 2006 (Innovation.gov.uk, 2008).

Automotive Industry in Africa

The automotive industry in the region of Africa is said to be among one of the fastest industries which are growing with tremendous rapid growth rate in the continent of Africa. Africa is an under developed region which lacks in the overall development forum but is capable of gaining success in especially the automotive industry and Africa can be considered quite successful in this aspect because it has observed remarkable progress in this sector and has continuously contribute to the enhancement of automotive business as a whole. This entire success factor deserves the contribution made by the quick thinking and management capabilities by the government of Africa (OECD, 2005).

Previously, Africa was responsible for the raw materials production of the automotive sector. But as of today, the whole region of Africa has proudly made it capable enough to produce and manufacture and design the automotive designs and models in its own homeland territory. Many internationally known companies have invested in Africa such as, Ford, Mercedes, BMW, GM, Honda, Toyota, Suzuki, VW, Mazda, DaimlerChrysler and many others (OECD, 2005).

This is because of the fact that the government has recognized the automotive sector as the giant contributor to the continent’s economic conditions and has becomes one of the best performing automobile industries in the whole world. Most of the foreign investment companies have investment with the primary parent organizations of localized car producers which has extended the local operations to enhance the situation of export commodities, production capabilities and supportive infrastructure (Global insight Automotive, 2004).

Many of the major primary vehicle manufacturing companies from all around the world are involved in the automotive industry in Africa. It includes eight of world’s top automotive manufactures. Apart from that, several multinational organizations have made use of Africa to assemble autos and source mechanisms for both the local as well as for the international marketplace (Buhlungu, Daniel, Lutchman; 2006).

Global insight Automotive (2004) explains that according to a calculation made in the past, the export level of automotive industry in Africa boosted up to an estimated annual level of R75 billion in 2005. The exports business of Passenger cars bounced up to 97,300 units in the year 2001 from 10,500 units which is a big achievement. Apart from that, the industry projections were increased and calculated to be 124,500 units in 2002 and 153,000 units in 2003 respectively.

According to Otabil (2008), as the population of Africa is growing, so does the job demand for the job hunters increases. Apart from that, the need for more vehicles and automobile cars also increases because of the rapid demand from the population aspects. This is why the automotive industry increases the overall production of vehicles and automobiles for the people living in Africa and also for the export purposes.

This rapid growth in the demand paves way for the opportunities of sales, services, vacancies for the entire region. However, Africa lacks in some technical support and the capital base. That is why a multinational company, Europe’s leading automobile producer, MAN has joined hands on governmental base and have helped the entire region in many ways; which includes, manufacturing, designing, producing, servicing and selling portion.

Africa has a huge concern on improving its Research & Development Criteria for the automotive industry so that it could start working on its own and could produce vehicles by its own creative designs (Buhlungu, Daniel, Lutchman; 2006).

(Otabil, 2008) In short, the situation of Africa’s automotive industry in the future looks bright and appreciating and also looks attractive enough for the investors to invest in this industry as much possible as they could. The government of Africa has committed with its people to adopt modern technology and to give competitive advantage to the entire region on the basis of development, research, manufacturing and producing.

Power Generation Turbines

A turbine can be known as a rotary machine or engine through which energy can be extracted with the help of a fluid flow. Normally, a turbine has a simple mechanism which consists of a moving part which is assembled to a rotary and a shaft which has blades around it. The blades help in movement with the help of the wind, water pressure or other energy resources available to the sources. In the past times, turbines were used as windmills and water wheels in country sides.

There are several types of turbines used around the globe and these different kinds of turbines are listed as under:

  • Wind Turbine
  • Gas turbine
  • Stream turbine
  • Contra-rotating turbines
  • Ceramic turbine
  • Bladeless turbine
  • Statorless turbine
  • Transonic turbine
  • Shrouded turbine
  • Shroudless turbine
  • Water turbine:
    • Francis turbine
    • Kaplan turbine
    • Pelton turbine

Power Generation Turbine Industry in the United Kingdom

As discussed by Breeze (2005), the use of energy and consumption of energy has increased a lot with the passage of time with the increase in the industries sector and population. The demand for more energy has been increased due to many reasons. To overcome the demand of the entire region of the united kingdom, the government has planned many projects which includes the manufacturing of many wind and gas turbines which could not only control the usage and consumption of energy but also would attract the interest of other foreign investors to look into this mater and invest in this industry.

The industry of the power generation turbines help a lot for the government to overcome many energy related problems, which include electricity, transportation, communications, media, household, corporate, commercial, and many other noteworthy industries.

According to a calculation, the energy consumption in the year 2005 was measured in percentage which is shown in the following (Breeze, 2005):

  • Transport – 35%
  • Space heating use – 26%
  • Industries – 10%
  • Water heating – 8%
  • Lighting/Household – 6%

The carbon emission in United Kingdom is measured in the following graph:

UK carbon emissions

The policy goals which the government of the United Kingdom has set for the future are (Capehart, 2007):

  • To maintain the supply of reliable energy source
  • To cut the carbon dioxide emission by 60% ratio by the year 2050
  • To promote sustainable economic growth by applying competitive market advantage in the region
  • To ensure every living family is heating their home affordably and comfortably

(Capehart, 2007) To ensure the government plants and reach to the set targets, the government has started working on many projects. One of the key projects is that the United Kingdom has opened an enormous energy generation wind turbine project plant in February 2007 with the capacity of installed 2GW.

This is a big achievement for the entire region which has ranked the United Kingdom as 7th biggest power generation producer in the world. This would help lessen down the increasing demand and would meet the expectations of the growing population. Other projects on which the government is setting up different turbines are through waves, offshore wav turbines, onshore waves turbines, solar turbines, wind turbines, gas turbines and many others.

The government of the United Kingdom has also invited other many major multinational organizations to come and invest and help the government in settling down the power generation problem.

Power Generation Turbine Industry in Africa

Like every other country, Africa is very concerned about the two main problems which are under discussion around the globe. The problems which are under consideration are; to secure the energy supply with diversity and then reduce the carbon dioxide emission from the environment in order to safe the ozone and provide pollution free environment to the upcoming generations (Frost & Sullivan, 2006).

As discussed by Dean, Taylor & Francis Group (2003); the condition of the entire economic state of Africa has improved a lot in the recent years which has paved way for the entire region to move ahead and develop by adopting the modern technologies coming in the marketplace everyday. Not only this, the growth in the economic, trade and industrial sector of Africa has increased the demand of the energy generation; which has resulted in the increase of turbine power generation modules in many areas of Africa.

Apart from the energy sources of coal and natural gas resources, the government of Africa has planned to make use of the stream and gas turbines in order to generate more powerful electricity power generation which could serve not only on the commercial use, but could also support the domestic, industrial and corporate use of the whole region. The regions which would be covered by this dramatic source of energy are mainly said to be Nigeria, and all of the major and commercialized countries of Central Africa, Northern Africa, South Africa and East Africa regions (Frost & Sullivan, 2006).

This would not only prominently help in the growth ratio of the performance of Africa, but would also help in generating high revenue margins which would help on the economic level of Africa. The turbine manufacturing industries in Africa are said to make the most of the potential growth of energy which would exceed the revenue generation growth from US$982.2 million in the year of 2005 to the increase of US$1,235.2 million by the end of the year 2012 (Frost & Sullivan, 2006). This high revenue profit generation of the Africa energy generation market has raised the interest rate of all the foreign investors, energy plant manufacturers, producers, engineers; and is expected to be very beneficial in the coming future, which would drastically affect the economy of Africa in positive manner for sure.

After a lot of detailed deep deliberation and research which was carried out on the economic, technical and region development aspects of the entire continent, the government of Africa has started working in the recent years on such extends which would be not focused on the country specific manner; but in fact, it would cover the consideration of energy generation project plants on pan-regional manner, so that the whole region gains development rather than country wise (Dean, Taylor & Francis Group; 2003).

Core Competence and Sustainability of Automotive Business around the Globe in General

The automotive industry has gone through tremendous progress in the recent years and with the passage of time as the technology, means of transport and living standards of people have development. The automotive industry around the world has been improved and grown by the demand of the increasing population and advancements around the globe. The automotive industry comprises of every thing related to the automobile, which includes designing, manufacturing, producing, selling, advertising, marketing, servicing, repairing and maintaining of the automotive appliances or vehicles (Nieuwenhuis, Wells; 2003).

According to an estimate, the overall calculated selling of cars and automobiles and vehicles comprises of more than 71.9 million in the year 2007. From all of this estimation; it is said to be noted that 22.9 million vehicles were sold in Europe, 21.4 million in Asia-Pacific region, 19.4 million from the north America, 4.4 million from the Latin America, 2.4 million in the Middle East, and 1.4 million in Africa region. The strongest markets were observed to be that of China, Brazil and Russia. The markets of the Asia region and south America have become very strong and people have started buying more and more vehicles on commercial and personal use, while the markets of Japan and North America remained neutral (BBC.com, 2008).

The automobile companies involve in the automotive industry are many. Some of them are listed below (Nieuwenhuis, Wells; 2003):

  • Toyota
  • Honda
  • Nissan
  • Suzuki
  • Ford
  • General Motors
  • Volkswagen
  • Chrysler LLC
  • PSA Peugeot Citroen
  • Hyundai Motors
  • Daimler AG
  • Renault SA
  • Mazda
  • Kia
  • BMW AG
  • Mercedes
  • Mitsubishi
  • Isuzu
  • Chang’an
  • Shanghai Automotive, and many others

The automotive industry has developed very strong core competence and sustainability over the entire globe. The impact of core competence and sustainability on the automotive business around the globe is huge and encouraging. This industry offers competitive advantage to the investing companies on international base concerns. The competitive advantages which are offered to the automotive industry are listed as under (Clegg, Hardy, Lawrence, Nord; 2006):

  • Cost effective
  • Minimum volume runs
  • High standard of manufacturing flexibility
  • Competitive manufacturing and tooling costs

The top performance and graphing of top 5 automotive companies known globally in 2006 are:

Top 5 Global Companies in 2006
Top 5 Global Companies in 2006 (Innovation.gov.uk).

(Clegg, Hardy, Lawrence, Nord; 2006) The automotive industry has become very matured as compared to before. However, there are still some risks involved in this business and these risks are listed in the following:

  • Bargaining capabilities and power of the suppliers
  • Bargaining capabilities and power of the buyers
  • The challenged faced to the business by new entrants
  • Competition and contention among all competitors in the marketplace
  • Threat from the alternate producers

Core Competence and Sustainability of Turbine Business around the Globe

The condition of the turbine business industry around the whole globe seems very encouraging for those who are interested in investing, manufacturing, engineering, producing or making use of the turbine and turbine related products business around their environments. The turbine related products can be named as generators, generator sets or turbine-based engines. The largest turbines industries in the world are expressed as graph in the following diagram:

Largest turbines in the World.
Largest turbines in the World (nextbigfuture.com).

The global market for turbine and turbine related products business has seen an annual demand for the turbines to 4.9 percent and is estimated to be increased and improved by US$106 billion by the end of the year 2012. This growth and performance improvement is because of the demand increase in the power generation markets overall the world. This increasing demand of the growth in turbine industry may face a neutral aspect or moderation after the use and installments of wind turbines in different countries and regions like Germany, Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Africa and other countries. However, the increase in the demand for power generation turbines have seen a vast growth in the year 2007 which is said to bring around US$12.6 billions of revenue and capital by the end of the year 2012.

The increase in the demand of turbine industry is mainly because of the increase in pollution and emission of carbon dioxide from various giant energy generators. The turbine industry is best for this problem and is hoped to lessen down the use of carbon dioxide emission very soon and would be very beneficial for the environment aspects and pollution-free conditions.

The turbine industry has seen a very sustainable business growth in the power generation, especially the wind turbine business. The giant producer and business entity right now in the turbine business industry is China, which gradually would become less but still would remain the biggest and above average manufacturers and users of the turbine industry in the whole world. Nonetheless, the most powerful users and producers of turbine power generators after China are said to be Mexico, Africa, Middle East and Latin America regions. The other regions of East-Europe and India are also not behind in this industry and have come forward in many ways by making use of turbines and planning on projecting some huge projects very soon; from which some are already planned and need execution.

The main turbine business production and core competencies are observed in the Western Europe and North America regions which consist of more than 73 percent of the total shipment made to the world on global basis. The giant supplier and business runner entity in this business is the United States who made business transactions of more than US$23 billion in the year of 2007. The other runner-ups turbine business runners are known to be China, the United Kingdom, Africa, Mexico, Germany and France. From all these business running countries and regions, the United States, the United Kingdom and Denmark are known to be the biggest exporters of turbines in the entire world (Buhlungu, Daniel, Lutchman; 2006).

The global industry of turbine business is highly flexible and revenue generator, with huge competition among the countries who are involved in this business. However, the industry of turbine business is exceeding the expected estimates because of the core competencies set by all the major companies concerned in this business.

Reasons for Development in the Automotive & Turbine industries in the United Kingdom and Africa

Some of the main reasons why the regions of the United Kingdom and Africa developed and succeed in respects of automotive and turbine industries are listed in the following (Hammel, Prahalad; 1996):

  • Hard working employees and people
  • Proper implementation of strategic planning
  • Involvement of personal focus of the government
  • Inviting foreign investment in the homeland
  • Proper use of human, social and institutional capital in both the industries by united kingdom and Africa
  • Improving the quality of political leadership, economic policy, governance and basic services provision
  • Taking local and foreign companies into confidence
  • Proper use of the financial, natural and foreign imported resources available
  • Developing the infrastructure of the trade and industrial sector
  • Focusing on improving the living standard of the population
  • Focusing on new technologies and leveling up the present state of technologies according to the modern advanced technologies
  • Reinforcing success
  • Supporting regional, technical and financial institutions
  • Promoting effective civil society
  • Making global partners
  • Supporting and then introducing local investors on global basis

Comparison of the Industries of the United Kingdom and Africa

The comparison and differences present in the industries of the United Kingdom and Africa are listed in the following (Hammel, Prahalad; 1996):

THE UNITED KINGDOM AFRICA
Developed region Developing region
Loaded with technologies for automotive and turbine industries Lack of technologies and personnel for automotive and turbine industries
Enjoy sustain development Replacing present system with ultra-modern development
Many automotive manufacturing companies with UK origins Less number of automotive manufacturing companies with African origin
Many turbine projects already installed and running efficiently Less number of turbines projects installed and running
Contains one of the largest wind turbine projects in the world Turbines projects in consideration at the moment
Involved in research modeling, designing, refueling and maintenance, recycling, core manufacturing, distribution and supply chain management of automobiles Involved in core designing, production, manufacturing, distribution and supply chain management of automobiles
Do business with Ford, BMW, Nissan, Honda, Toyota, GM and many other automotive foreign companies Do business with Ford, Mercedes, BMW, GM, Honda, Toyota, Suzuki, VW, Mazda, DaimlerChrysler and many other automotive foreign companies
Did 200 billion worth of pounds business in automotive sector in 2006 Did R75 billion worth of business in the automotive sector in 2005
Working on to cut the car dioxide emission to 60% by end of 2050 Working on to cut down the carbon dioxide emission by all means
World’s 7thlargest power generation producer Working on big projects to get high ranking among other countries of the world
Already making millions of US$ as revenue Working to generate US$1,235.2 million revenue by end of 2012 in turbine sector

Research Conduct for Core Competence and Sustainability of Business Development – Case Study of Automotive & Turbine Industry in the UK, Africa and the World in General

With the population of more than 6 billion all around the world, it was difficult to manage the research and conduct it according to the requirements. But we have come along a long way to conduct the research for this dissertation and have conducted several interviews with different people all around the world.

We have conducted this research from different six (6) individuals who were kind enough to extract some time for us and give us replies from the questions we asked from them. These individuals belong from London, Scotland, Mexico, Nigeria, Germany and France respectively.

We have asked a couple of questions which have been answered very honestly while insisting on keeping their names and identities confidential. We are very thankful to these professionals and respect their concern that is why we are elaborating their names from the interviews but presenting their interviews. The questions we asked from them are of compact shape and are listed in the following:

  • What is core competence in your opinion
  • How would you define sustainability in your words
  • How core competence and sustainability are important to the business development
  • How does core competence and sustainability relate to customer satisfaction
  • How does the changes brought by the core competence and sustainability helps in the development of the business
  • How can an organization improve its organizational structure
  • What is the condition of automotive industry
  • What is the situation of the turbines business industry in your opinion
  • What role does the region of Africa plays in the core competence and sustainability of automotive and turbine business development
  • How is the progress of the united kingdom in the core competence and sustainability of automotive and turbine business development
  • What do think is the progress of the entire world with respects of automotive and turbine business

First Interviewee – from the city of London

Our first interviewee belongs from the great city of London. London is considered as one of the biggest and busiest cities in the world. The first person we interviewed was a gentleman who is involved in several government projects related to the turbine industry. He was kind enough to lend us some time from his hectic busy schedule and answered us in the following pattern:

The Gentleman: I am 45 years old and have been working with some of the government confidential projects since many years. As far as my tenure and experience is concerned, I believe that all the businesses which are run by several multinational and local companies have something to do with their objectives on which hey were created. The main objective of every business is to earn revenue and show the world that it can exist among all the major competitors and giant companies standing right ahead of it.

To help the organization in operating till many years and till the time the owner wants to run it, the main motive of it is to create some unique capabilities which differentiate it from the other companies. This uniqueness and the unique capabilities owned by the products and services of the company is the core competence, and the constant point n which the company operates with constant or increasing revenue is the sustainability factor of it. Core competence and sustainability is of great importance because it helps the company in long term planning and long existence of the entire business. Apart from that, it helps in gaining the trust of a customer because this is the reason behind the success of the business that it lets the customers demand for some change and the company achieves that demand level set by the customer.

By setting this standard, the company proves that it deserves to have the trust of the customer. Thus, core competence and sustainability helps in gaining the customer trust and customer satisfaction very much. By achieving the satisfaction of the customer, the business also gets the standard o sustainability through which it could survive in the marketplace for long-term which means that the business of the company is growing and it would remain in the market with sustain or increasing level of performance and growth. An organization can very easily improve the organizational structure because of the help of core competence and sustainability because it creates reliability and long-term existence planning of the business.

As far as the automotive industry is concerned, I have seen a lot of innovation and creativity in this sector. Companies have taken serious interest in developing their designs and characteristics of their models and it also helps in developing the economy of the country. I am the witness of the progress of the united kingdom undertaken for the automotive industry and have seen a lot of improvement.

For the turbine industry, I am involved in this industry and have seen that the government of many countries have seriously working on it and they are trying their best to provide pollution-free and carbon dioxide free atmosphere to the children and families and also to support them with all the facilities hey deserve of. The industries of automotive and turbine has seen great improvements in the regions of Africa and the United Kingdom. The progress made by the entire world and all the countries is remarkable.

Second Interviewee – from Scotland

The second person we interviewed was a common man from the region of Scotland, the United Kingdom. This gentleman runs an automobile showroom business solely and has the following comments on the questions we asked from him on the telephone.

The Gentleman: Well, I believe that core competence is of great importance for every organization. Core competence is the set of sole or different abilities which a business or product possess in order to run that business and show that this product or service provided by the company is solely different from other products available in the marketplace. Sustainability is the feature which helps core competence and creates a certain level of productivity or performance on which the business is considered to run successfully. Both of them are related to one another in every way and are very important for the performance and growth of the business.

They help in the better progress, performance, growth, revenue generation; popularity, product and services quality, better cost effectiveness, and better quality provided by the business and thus, affect the organizational structure as a whole from every aspect. These are all the factors through which the company can improve the performance and organizational structure of the company. I am related to the automotive business so I can say that the automobile industry has increased to huge extends within recent years. Companies have introduced huge variety of several models which allow the customers to select their dream car or vehicle.

The transportation means have improved and people are provided with many choices. Apart from the fuel and cost fluctuations, the overall situation and future of the car industry is very bright and the United Kingdom has made tremendous growth and advancements in the technology sector. As far as the region of Africa is concerned, I have seen that the under-developed region of Africa has tried a lot and tried very hard to survive in this industry which is very good and bright sign for the golden shining future of Africa and I am very glad to see this change.

This will not only improve the economy of Africa but would also bring good reputation to the entire region. The future of the automotive industry in the world market is very bright and would remain shining like a golden star. The turbine industry, I am very hopeful that it would help all the involved countries and parties to give the best to the people and would help in the performance and growth aspects of those countries. Not only this, but the economy and power generation situation of those countries, inclusive of he United Kingdom, Africa and the whole world would become very appreciating.

Third Interview – from Mexico

The third interview was conducted on direct internet chat with a fine lady who is involved in the projects of wind turbines in Mexico. This fin lady was kind enough to answer us and extract time for our questionnaire. The following are the answers she replied:

The Lady: as far as my concern and opinion is concerned, I think that the whole business is a body and the qualities which enable it to move ahead are the core competencies and sustainability. Both are joined together because of their sensitivity and are very crucial to the state of every business and organizational structure. It helps in attaining and reflecting the moral of the business. They highlight the sensitive issues of the business and define the pathway for the employees working in the company to achieve those targets.

This helps in gaining customer satisfaction. Now customer satisfaction s the most important point and target which should be gained at any cost or condition in a business because companies are set to have customers and customers are the main source because of whom the business and companies are created and run. The changes brought by the role of core competence and sustainability brings development, profit margins, reputation to the company and prove that the company is well deserved to work in coordination with its employees and can work up to the marks set by its customers; and most o all, it cares for its customers.

I m very fond of cars and keep a close look on the automotive industry and the innovations which are undertaken gradually with the passage of time and I must say that not only in the united kingdom and Africa, but the entire global automotive industry has been improved and has set great and brilliant marks which should be written with golden words. The core competencies and sustainability capabilities of this industry is very crucial and so is of the turbine industry. The turbine industry is totally different from the vehicles and cars industry but is also very important to the world. The turbine industry is said turbine drastic changes in the climatic conditions of the world and would minimize the pollution level along with the carbon dioxide emission present in the air.

Fourth Interview – from Nigeria

The fourth interview was taken again from a person; a gentleman who works in a multinational IT organization is not related to the automotive or turbine industry on corporate basis but still we have interviewed him on telephone just to know what are the opinions of a general person as compared to other people related to those industries. The interview goes as follows:

The Gentleman: I am new to the corporate environment and previously, I used to be a student so I am new to this corporate market and corporate world. I have studies a lot about the core competencies and sustainability of business and in my opinion, businesses cannot prosper without the help of core competencies and sustainability factors because these are some of the characteristics which react as the backbone of the organization and organizations cannot prosper without the working or operational method of the backbone.

Core competence is the specialized capabilities or qualities which a product or service consists and make itself different yet attractive from other products and services present in the market. Whereas, the factor of sustainability comes after the core competence factor. Sustainability helps in foreseeing the future growth of the company and helps in analyzing the performance of the organization in the coming future. Sustainability is the level of working on which a business assumes itself as running or successful business entity. Both are very important and related to each other and can bring lots and lots of numerous advantages to the business sector in which they are applied.

The automotive industry has gone through many dramatic changes with the passage of time and has seen great performance and revenue leap in recent years. People have adopted the automobiles facility on great extends and makes use of personal transport more than that of commercialized transport. The industries of automotive in the United Kingdom and Africa are very strong and would help the global automotive market to develop sense of automobiles in general.

As far as the turbine industry is concerned, I am very supportive of it and think that it s very beneficial for the future generations and economy of every that country in which turbines are projected for energy generation. The power generation module is successful in every country including the United Kingdom, Africa and all other countries involved in this business or industry for revenue or business purpose.

Fifth Interview – from Germany

The fifth interview was conducted with a lady, a senior executive position holder in the wind turbines project running in Germany. This lady is very professional and was kind enough and supportive enough to lend us some time from her busy schedule through telephonic interview for which we are very grateful. The interview was very short but even then was very informative and compact and has been explained in the following:

The lady: I am related to the governmental project of the wind turbine running in Germany and have worked with several other projects many times in my whole life. I think that on corporate basis, core competence is the core advantage gainer where it explains that what are the main and different qualities of the products and services a company is providing. Sustainability helps core competence in parallel and takes care of the development of the business very much on its shoulders. Both are related to each other and a business cannot exceed further as successive business without the help of core competence and sustainability.

The guidelines or guide map is basically provided by the core competence and sustainability. Organization can make millions and billions of profit and keep on generating such type of revenue with the help of these two factors. It actually changes the pattern of the organization in which it works, but this change is positive and always ends up in the favor of the organization. If a company wants to succeed, it better should work on the ways explained by the core competence and sustainability.

The automotive industry is not so new to the marketplace. It is there since transport was introduced in the market. The only difference is that it keeps on changing and in the recent years, it has changed a lot and this change is very supportive and in the favor of the customers who are using automobiles for their own use. The African auto industry has recently come up in the graph of other competitors countries, whereas the United Kingdom was always there.

The situation of the global automotive industry also looks more than satisfactory as a whole. As far as turbine industry is concerned, this industry has been advancement in the recent years and people are happy to see such change because it saves energy consumption over the global basis and would save money, time, energy, natural resources and would provide people with facilities they deserve on domestic purpose. The industries of Africa and United Kingdom are making great efforts and so does the other countries all around the globe to improve in this sector.

Sixth interview – France

The sixth and the lat interview was carried out with a person who is a teacher in a university in France. We asked a couple of questions from our list and here are some answers we received:

The Teacher: I am living in France since the time I was born here. I am related to the profession of teaching and would try my level best to answer the questions accordingly. Core competence and sustainability are very supportive and important to any organization they are concerned with. Core competence and sustainability paves way for businesses to go ahead and achieve their set targeted goals and for that, future planning can also be carried out with the help of them. It helps in improving the organizational structure of the company because it changes the way of thinking of the people and customers.

Moreover, it helps in 100% customer satisfaction ratio because core competence tells the real qualities of the products and services which are highlighted in the market, whereas the future progress can be seen by the sustainability factor; so all these factors attracts the attention of the customers. This way, the company gets the chance of making new customers and retaining the old customers.

The automobile industry and turbine industry are doing very well as I can see the proof of automobile advancements from my eye and my observations. The United Kingdom and Africa are playing major role in improving their auto industries whereas other countries of the world in general are making their best efforts in these industries. The turbine industries, as I read in the news and internet are said t educe the pollution and use of natural resources and would save human energy in many ways. Africa and the United Kingdom are pro-active in this regard which is a very good sign and so are the other global regions.

Summary

This section represents the main research methodologies and the research method used in the dissertation. This session was meant to discuss how the researcher has gone to what extends and what findings the researcher has succeeded to find out finally. The significant industries for the case study used in this research methodology are the core competence and sustainability of business development in the United Kingdom and Africa and the business industries which are highlighted here were the automotive and turbine industries.

The regions of Africa and the United Kingdom have groomed with the passage of time and have given competitive edge to their competitors; while the automotive and turbine industries have seen a lot of remarkable development with the passage of time and have attracted the attention of many investors, designers, countries, and multinationals. The industries of automotive and turbine business have succeeded to high extends and seen lot in the regions of Africa and the United Kingdom.

Not only that, but the automotive and turbine industry around the globe also been discussed. In the last, different six (6) interviews also have been conducted from six (6) different professionals and individuals who are related to different fields. These individuals live in diverse areas of the world and we have conducted their interviews either on telephone, or on direct internet medium.

Result

Introduction

This section analysis the results that we have find out till now while doing the whole study. The findings we have in our hands are related to the core competence and sustainability of business development and for the case study of the dissertation, we would discuss the findings we analyzed from research on the industries of automotive and turbine industries in the region of Africa, the United Kingdom and other regions of the world.

Findings for the Core Competence and Sustainability of Business Development

As discussed in the above section, core competence and sustainability can change the entire structure of the organization. Both of them are very essential and crucial for the growth and versatile performance of the business. According to the findings of the core competence and sustainability; they helps the business and organization in many ways and have the impact on the whole organization as explained in the following points:

  • The entire model of the company relates to core competence and is dependent on it and sustainability
  • Provides the organization with niche on competition and provide competitive advantage to the business
  • Helps the organization in giving competitive edge to the other competitors present in the marketplace
  • Takes care of the expanding operations of the organization
  • Core competence and sustainability are the source of collective learning in the organization
  • Helps the organization in tackling how to coordinate diverse production skills
  • Helps the organization in learning how to integrate with the multiple streams of technologies and challenges
  • Contributes in maintaining subtle operations and unique identification of the organization
  • Ensures to present more superior product over the other products of the competitors in the marketplace
  • Helps in presenting balanced skills set of knowledge present in a team or group
  • Analysis and explains the important responsibilities and strategies of the company in detail
  • Measures the specialized skills and future prospect effects of the organization
  • Follows creative set of processes and procedures
  • Extends the ratio of opportunities for others
  • Makes uncompetitive contribution to the stakeholder strength and interests
  • Delivers unmatched skills set and knowledge which cannot be copied by other competitors
  • Provides business with transparency, transferability, durability and replicability
  • Enhances the customer values
  • Achieves customer satisfaction
  • Gains trust of new customers and retains the old customer base
  • Acknowledges the work inputted by all the professionals involved in the project management of the company
  • Helps the corporate business to run on a constant unmatched indefinitely on a specific desired level
  • Combines the learning goals with that of business oriented stated strategic objectives
  • Improves the value, quality, validity, durability of the products and services of the organization
  • Teaches the employees and other staff of the company about the objectives and measures that need to be taken in the business environment
  • Outlines the future strategy of the organization
  • Is the pro-active advanced move of business
  • Ensures the proper flow of long-term feasibility and capability of business integrity
  • Optimizes the resources available, reduces the environmental risks involved, saves energy and social impacts
  • Manages the resources available very properly
  • Ensures huge profit and revenue generation
  • Enhances revenue growth, sales graph, reputation and handles business risks involved
  • Determines the future prospects of the company in general and on vast expenditures
  • Ensures healthy and profound lifestyle
  • Ensures economic diversity
  • Provides stability in terms of financial value of the business
  • Promotes fair rules and regulations in order to ensure competitive advantage
  • Ensures environment safety and eco-efficiency
  • Localize network sustainability for the business
  • Provides useful and transparent information to the investors and stakeholders involved and include them in the on-going important events of the organization
  • Measures the success ratio of the future strength of business
  • Provides added value, robustness, competitiveness, potential and prolonged performance to the business
  • Facilitates the relationship between the market and the economy
  • Manages the employees, customers, stakeholders, and society
  • Allows broader authority and opportunities for the business to grow with higher improved business values
  • Recognizes the strategy for innovative ways, cultivates resources and organizational capabilities, implementation of business strategies, integration of business process, procedures and units into productive form, managing the organizational environment with smooth low of operations and business

Outcomes of Core Competence & Sustainability on Automotive & Turbine Industry in Africa and the United Kingdom

The key findings from the research carried out to find out the impact of core competence and sustainability on the industries of automotive and turbines in the countries of Africa and the United Kingdom are many, but the main points are listed as under:

  • The automotive industry in the United Kingdom has gained popularity while improving its competitive edge over the competitors present in the global marketplace and exploits the financial business opportunities for the United Kingdom industry in Europe and all around the world
  • The region of the united kingdom has improved the product quality and adapted advanced technology with the rapid growth of technology with the passage of time and the globally changes taking place from time to time
  • The united kingdom has included all sorts of activities which includes of research modeling, manufacturing vehicles, designing innovative designs and technologies according to the demands and needs of the customers, refueling and maintenance, recycling, core manufacturing, distribution and supply chain management
  • United Kingdom holds the degree of manufacturing vehicle base with car manufacturers and producers such as, Ford, BMW, Nissan, Honda, Toyota, GM and many others
  • In 2006, the automotive industry of the United Kingdom paved way for 200,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector while giving way to more 580,000 job vacancies in the areas of sales, servicing, refueling, pumping, maintaining and many other services aligned with the automotive sector
  • United Kingdom was able to produce more than 1.65 million personal and commercial use transportation vehicles for the people which resulted in the finalized more than 200 billion worth of pounds business through out the year in the 2006
  • Africa has been able to make it capable enough to produce and manufacture and design the automotive designs and models
  • Many internationally known companies have invested in Africa such as, Ford, Mercedes, BMW, GM, Honda, Toyota, Suzuki, VW, Mazda, DaimlerChrysler and many others
  • Export level of automotive industry in Africa boosted up to an estimated annual level of R75 billion in 2005
  • In Africa, exports business of Passenger cars bounced up to 97,300 units in the year 2001 from 10,500 units
  • In Africa, industry projections were increased and calculated to be 124,500 units in 2002 and 153,000 units in 2003 respectively
  • Europe’s leading automobile producer, MAN has joined hands on governmental base and have helped the entire region in many ways; which includes, manufacturing, designing, producing, servicing and selling portion
  • Several multinational organizations have helped Africa to assemble autos and source mechanisms for both the local and the international market
  • The automotive industry has increased the production of vehicles and automobiles for the people living in Africa and also for the export purposes
  • Most of the foreign investment companies have investment with the primary parent organizations of localized car producers which has extended the local operations to enhance the situation of export commodities, production capabilities and supportive infrastructure
  • The use of energy and consumption of energy has increased a lot with the passage of time with the increase in the industries sector and population
  • The government of United Kingdom has planned many projects to manufacture many wind and gas turbines to control the use and consumption of energy and attract foreign investors to look into this mater and invest in this industry
  • In UK, power generation turbines would help the government to overcome energy related problems of electricity, transportation, communications, media, household, corporate, commercial, and other noteworthy industries
  • In 2005, the energy consumption was measured to be; Transport – 35%, Space heating use – 26%, Industries – 10%, Water heating – 8%, Lighting/Household – 6%
  • The turbine industry would help the UK in maintain the supply of energy, cut the carbon dioxide emission, and ensure happy domestic lifestyle
  • United Kingdom has opened an enormous energy generation wind turbine project plant in February 2007 with the capacity of installed 2GW
  • Other projects on which the government is setting up different turbines are through waves, offshore wav turbines, onshore waves turbines, solar turbines, wind turbines, gas turbines and many others
  • Africa is concerned about two main problems; to secure the energy supply with diversity; and reduce the carbon dioxide emission
  • The condition of Africa has improved a lot in the recent years and has paved way to develop by adopting the modern technologies
  • Africa has planned to use stream and gas turbines to generate electricity and serve the commercial, domestic, industrial and corporate industries
  • In Africa, the revenue would exceed from US$982.2 million in the year of 2005 to the increase of US$1,235.2 million by the end of the year 2012

Performance of Core Competence and Sustainability Seen in the Automotive & Turbine Industry on Global Basis

The performance after implementing core competence and sustainability in the automotive and turbine business have been observed on global basis and these performances are listed as under:

  • The automotive industry around the world has been improved and grown by the demand of the increasing population and advancements around the globe
  • The automotive industry comprises of every thing related to the automobile, which includes designing, manufacturing, producing, selling, advertising, marketing, servicing, repairing and maintaining
  • In 2007, overall calculated selling of cars and automobiles and vehicles comprises of more than 71.9 million
  • In 2007, 22.9 million vehicles were sold in Europe, 21.4 million in Asia-Pacific region, 19.4 million from the north America, 4.4 million from the Latin America, 2.4 million in the Middle East, and 1.4 million in Africa region
  • The automotive industry offers competitive advantage to the investing companies on international base concerns
  • The competitive advantages offered to the automotive industry are; cost effective, minimum volume runs, high standard of manufacturing flexibility, competitive manufacturing and tooling costs
  • Risks involved in automotive business are; bargaining capabilities of suppliers, bargaining capabilities of buyers, challenged faced to the business by new entrants, competition among all competitors in the marketplace, and threat from the alternate producers
  • The global market for turbine has an annual demand of 4.9 percent and will be increase to US$106 billion by the end of 2012
  • The turbine industry would bring around US$12.6 billions of revenue and capital by the end of the year 2012 to the world
  • The main turbine business production is observed in Western Europe and North America regions with 73% of total shipment to the world
  • The giant supplier in turbine business is the United States who made business transactions of more than US$23 billion in the year of 2007
  • United Kingdom and Denmark are the biggest exporters of turbines

Discussion & Conclusion

Introduction

This chapter explains the final discussion and conclusion that needs to be carried out while coming to a point and making it very clear to the reader. This chapter also analysis the details that have been presented in the previous chapter and would give a final conclusion for the convenience of the reader.

Limitations Faced

While compiling this report, several limitations have been faced which are related either to the corporate reasons or the academic reasons of the researcher. These limitations are listed as under:

  • The research of the researcher could be biased because of the qualitative data representative on the web as well as the information gathered by the interviewees
  • The information present on the countries, industries profile and web are several, hence the information displayed is limited because there are numerous and uncountable sources present, but all of them cannot be presented in this detailed dissertation
  • The information presented by the six (6) interviewees may vary because they are conducted from different countries and people have different views and opinions; and their opinions may vary from one another
  • The research carried out is not extensively complete
  • The research is carried out by a student, hence, the information may face conflicts by its lecturer or this assignment could be different from the point of view of the lecturer

Discussion/Conclusion – Core Competence and Sustainability of Business Development

This dissertation has been carried out on the main theme of core competence and sustainability in business development which is applied in the organizational structure and helps in sustain business growth and development to large extends. Nowadays, a lot of companies enter in the marketplace but not all of them make it to the success level where it can prove its unique distinctness around the globe with good reputation and profit/revenue margin.

(Godbout, 2000) Companies establish to generate revenue and make good reputation in order through better performance and growth in their business commodities. The main objective of every running business in this world is to generate huge amount of profit which could satisfy the need of the business owners and parties involved; and to prove its unique identity with popularity in the marketplace. Now, making a distinctive recognition in the market is not easy. It takes several years to organizations to reach to a certain desired level; but it is not possible. However, it takes times and the company has to face challenges I order to prove whether it is capable enough to face the world, meet up to the mark set by the customers, gain customers trust and set competitive edge for the other competitors present in the marketplace.

Organizations and businesses provide products and services to the customers, and customers are the main source of attraction for the business because they bring business to the company which enables the organization to run and operate in the global market. So it is the basic need of every business an organization to make new customers, gain the trust of the new customers, make them committed to become the permanent customers of the company; and retain the old customer base.

This strategy always results in expansion of the consumer circle for the entire organization. what a business actually needs is to operate with high productivity level where it could work in coordination with its employees and management teams and prove that it can operate better than other competitors and produce full stream of work, product and services by improving the performance level and eventually, improving the revenue generation annually (Gutierrez, 2003).

There is huge competition present in the marketplace and only successful companies manage to show their best presence beside other competitors by initiating better work performance, improved quality of their product and services, and gaining customer satisfaction. Unfortunately, not all companies succeed in coming to this level. In order to attain the level of success and sustain operation of business in the market with huge customer base; the company needs to plan certain things and strategies. The solution to all these problems and issues is to introduce core competence and sustainability in the business development community.

Core competence and sustainability are different factors which affect the business environment in various positive ways. They are so imperative and centrally significant to the entire business that the whole organization and its business can be considered as dependent on the core competence and sustainability factors (Franke, 2002).

Core competence and sustainability helps the entire business cycle in many ways. Both of them are very important and crucial for the better future prospective growth and performance enhancement of the organization and the management teams involved. Any business running in the market cannot be considered as flourishing and beneficially operating unless and until it is being controlled by the core competence and sustainability characteristics of business development (Gutierrez, 2003).

Core competence helps the entire organizational structure in subtle operation of business and also ensures that an entire different unique identification related to the product or services provided by the company is being introduced in the market. Core competence is a mixture of correspondent balanced informative skills set present in the team or a group which makes it uncomplicated for the owners and management of the company to represent highly superior product over the other products available in the marketplace offered by the competitors.

Core competence analysis and then presents a descriptive form of all the crucial responsibilities of the products, services, employees, management, teams, owners, and stakeholders in a strategic manner. This strategic activity enables the business to operate successively and ensures sustain existence of the business. Core competence also helps in determining the specialized and focused skills set; and perspective outcomes of the organization and then strategically aligns the future act of responsibilities which should be followed by a creative set of procedures.

It is because of core competence which enables the business to introduce new perspective opportunities and broaden the level of new opportunities for others. Core competence takes care of everything involved in the business; which includes products, services, employees, teams, management, stakeholders, owners, dealers, retailers, customers, and partners. It also ensures uncompetitive contribution to improve the stakeholders and business partners’ strength. In addition, core competence delivers an incompatible exclusive and exceptional combination of explicit and tacit set of skills to the neither business which can neither be copied nor pull down by the other competitors present in the market (1000ventures.com, 2008).

Core competence of business focuses on customer satisfaction feature through which it continuously improves the overall quality of the products and services it provides; improves the level of services along with the overall picture of the organizational structure which could focus on improving by delivering the fundamental customer benefit and whatever which is considered as best to the customers.

Core competence also focuses on the interests of employees by providing them with the best working packages and acknowledging their works which they have exerted with lots of hard work.

On the other hand, sustainability helps the entire business structure in a lot of ways which are usually ignored by the observers. The benefits provided by sustainability in business helps in better development and growth aspects of the business while focusing on the product quality and the customer base. There are many other neglected benefits which are often caused by the occurrence and characteristics of sustainability in business. Sustainability helps in facing all of sorts of direct and indirect challenges of the business community. It ensures smooth flow of operations by helping the business to run indistinctly on a particular certain desired level by protecting the social and environmental aspects around (Rainey, 2006).

The key to success and main objective to enable the organizational structure in sustain condition is to combine the stated strategic objectives with that of learning goals which are stated in the perspective business outcomes of business.

Despite the fact that sustainability helps in determining business outcomes, it still face several challenges from the internal and external factors involved which are different in all the cases. Companies face difficulty in implementing the strategies of sustainability in the organization structure because it seems very difficult, rigid, challenging and required hard working in the beginning which is why many employees, management and teams fear reluctance in adopting those rules and regulations; but once it is done and implemented properly, the company enjoys sustain operational flow an sustainability in the organization structure forever with increase in the annual profit margin (Anjana; 2002).

Sustainability forecasts the perspective progress and performance appraisal which could be achieved in the coming future. With its help, the organization might come to know about the pro-active advanced moves which should be made in the future. This ensures the long-term feasibility and capability of the business integrity by optimizing and managing the resources available, reducing environmental risks involved, saving the energy used and social impacts. Sustainability also guarantees the better performance of company by ensuring uncompromising product quality, business productivity, business profitability and overall organizational revenue appraisal for the entire cycle of business.

Sustainability understands the set of processes, procedures, principles and the science behind the background working. It prepares the future aspects of processes, procedures and principles which should be followed. After the whole cycle of preparation, it finally implements those principles and all other requirements into the business environment to integrate with them accordingly and properly.

Sustainability directly affects the operations of the organization structure and helps the business in improving the overall revenue generation procedure, reputation, sales graph and business risks involved. It directly helps in determining the right position and standing of business in the marketplace by evaluation and calculation; and it also determines the future condition of the business in general and on vast extended grounds (Anjana; 2002).

Sustainability also supports the environment and social surroundings. It ensures environmental safety and eco-efficiency. It adopts the technology which is not only clean but ensures climatic safety. It also provides several other benefits to the whole organization on larges extends, such as; protected improved environment, healthy and safe lifestyle, sense of security and community, economic diversity, energy conservation, racial diversity, efficient learning for the professionals, long-term provision of education, highly unmatchable quality, artistic and visual designs, and stability in terms of financial value of the business.

Discussion/Conclusion – Core Competence and Sustainability in Automotive & Turbine Industry in Africa, United Kingdom and World in General

The technology advancements made to the industries of automotive and turbines industries around the globe have seen vast improvement and growth in the recent years. Being popular from the designing, manufacturing and selling aspects, the United Kingdom holds a very certain position in the world with respects to automotive and turbine industry business.

(Nieuwenhuis, Wells; 2003) It offers a huge variety for the customers to choose from various models of automotives. United Kingdom has been involved in all sorts of activities which includes of research modeling, manufacturing vehicles, designing innovative designs and technologies according to the demands and needs of the customers, refueling and maintenance, recycling, core manufacturing, distribution and supply chain management. United Kingdom holds the degree of manufacturing vehicle base with car manufacturers and producers such as, Ford, BMW, Nissan, Honda, Toyota, GM and many others.

As a whole, the United Kingdom has seen immeasurable tremendous growth in the automotive industry since the last decade. Not only this, but the entire region of the United Kingdom is continuously working with the new advancements made in the automotive industry and adapting these challenges, new technologies and commercial regulatory.

As for the use of energy and consumption of energy is concerned, it has increased a lot with the passage of time in the industries sector of United Kingdom. The industry of the power generation turbines help a lot for the government to overcome many energy related problems, which include electricity, transportation, communications, media, household, corporate, commercial, and many other noteworthy industries. One of the key projects is that the United Kingdom has opened an enormous energy generation wind turbine project plant in February 2007 with the capacity of installed 2GW (OECD, 2005).

(BBC.com, 2007) The automotive industry in Africa has undergone various changes which have increased the economic value of the entire region. Previously, Africa was known to manufacture only the raw materials for the automotives; but with the passage of time, Africa has gained controlled of the entire industry and now is dealing in manufacturing and production of the automotives which includes international brands such as, Ford, Mercedes, BMW, GM, Honda, Toyota, Suzuki, VW, Mazda, DaimlerChrysler and many others.

Africa has also attracted many investors and international companies who are investing in this industry. Africa succeeded in reaching to the profit margin of around R75 billion in the year 2005 and is growing more and more every year. Africa has a huge concern on improving its Research & Development Criteria for the automotive industry so that it could start working on its own and could produce vehicles by its own creative designs (Global insight, 2004).

On the other had, the turbine industry in Africa has gained not only the popularity but also has developed entire industry in the region because Africa is very concerned on reducing the pollution ad carbon dioxide emission in the environment; and provide safe and secure energy resource to its population. For this, the government of Africa has gone through many projects and has planned many energy power generation projects. Africa made US$982.2 million of revenue in 2005 and is working on to increase it to US$1,235.2 million by the end of 2012.

Future Aspects & Recommendations

(Hammel, Prahalad; 1996) The state on which we are standing right now is revolutionary. Everyday, changes occurs in almost every field. Core competence is perfect for the organizational structure but has certain recommendations which are needed to be followed in the company for a better prosperous future. These recommendations are listed in the following:

  • The organization should pay back its dues very quickly by giving it priority so that it could maintain a good reputation in the marketplace and could be given a better preference over its competitors in the next deal
  • The company must give prioritize focus on the external suppliers end and customers base
  • The company should follow the rules and regulations set by the core competence very strictly and properly.

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