Chapter 7. Implementation: An Inside View of the Organization

In the Studebaker National Museum sits an automobile that is powered by ion beams. Engineers within the Studebaker Corporation saw an opportunity to build an automobile that used a completely revolutionary design and energy source. They built a prototype of the automobile but lacked the capabilities and assets to produce the ion beams to propel the car as they had planned. If it were possible to produce the envisioned automobile, it would have produced a solid Area A, a point of difference, in the automotive industry. Because they were unable to deliver on their strategy, their prototype sits in the Studebaker National Museum as another good idea that lacked the resources, capabilities, and assets necessary to make it work. The Studebaker Company had the vision but lacked the internal resources, capabilities, and assets to bring their idea to life. The world is full of executives and entrepreneurs who have tremendous strategies and sensational ideas, but who are unable to execute those strategies or carry out those ideas to realize the anticipated dream.

What is in a company’s DNA, its internal characteristics, that makes it possible to produce the goods and services desired by the customer? What are the characteristics that both build and sustain an organization’s current competitive advantage (Area A) and have the potential to create future advantages?