You see it everywhere in magazine articles and advertisements, but what exactly is a core competence? At its simplest, a core competence is a unique capability that affords some type of competitive advantage. It corresponds to a business process, and involves underlying skills, functions, systems and knowledge. To determine if something is of core competence, one must ask, "Does this 'thing' give the company a unique advantage over its competitors and help make the company …showed first 75 words of 1037 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1037 total…other discount chains. However, what distinguishes Wal-Mart is its unique capability to manage its resources in a highly productive way. Wal-Mart's sophisticated supply system provides the mass-merchandiser with significant advantages by improving its ability to minimize shipping and handling costs. Underlying it all is a set of core competencies and/or capabilities that are hard to imitate. These core competencies, and a continuous strategic investment in them, govern the long term strength of the company.