Learning skills management takes time.
So one may ask, why bother?
Would it not be better to invest
the limited time that I have for professional development
into something new and exciting so that I can extend my skills portfolio?
The answer to this question is, it depends.
It may well be the case that you would be better off tackling
a new functional area that might look good on your resume.
For example, you could take an online course in
data analytics if you haven't done so already.
But after a while,
particularly if you have not been very successful when competing for a position,
you might be interested in learning about how to grow,
manage, and present your skills portfolio more effectively.
This is where you, a career builder,
can learn something useful from the business world.
It is well-known that to successfully operate,
businesses must initially possess capabilities
in many functional areas such as production,
distribution, marketing, finance, accounting, and so on.
While the business stays small,
managing its operations and acquiring new capabilities comes
naturally and doesn't require special qualifications.
But at some point,
successfully competing in an ever-changing environment requires
growing businesses to learn how to use its resources effectively and efficiently.
This is where business strategy comes into play.
Business strategy helps managers define how to best utilize
available resources and reach the intended goal under competitive pressure.
In a nutshell, business strategy answers
the fundamental question of what the company's standing on the market currently is,
where the managers want it to be in the future,
and how to get from here to there.
The key concept of business strategy is competitive advantage.
These days the rhetoric of competitive advantage is extremely popular.
You probably hear a lot about the need for
career builders to get a competitive advantage in the job market.
The question that we must ask at this point is whether
competitive advantage is just a good slogan or,
alternatively, there is some useful knowledge that is
accumulated by business strategists and can be used by career builders.
We think that the problem that a career builder must
solve is very similar to one business strategist deal with.
Probably the most important thing that you can learn from
business strategists is how to approach,
define, and utilize the concept of competitive advantage.
For business strategists, competitive advantage is not a figure of
speech but a well-defined situation in a competitive market,
where one of many competitors yields higher returns than others.
Michael Porter, a professor at Harvard Business School,
is usually credited with developing
an in-depth understanding of the nature and causes of competitive advantage.
Building on Porter's ideas,
business strategists have developed a range of theories and
methodologies aimed at helping companies create and sustain a competitive advantage.
For example, one of the most influential theories introduced by Jay Barney,
a professor at Texas A&M University,
suggests that in a highly competitive environment,
businesses tend to be more successful if they stick to a resource-based view of the firm.
Management theorist CK Prahalad and Gary Hamel further
recommended that companies must pay particular attention to developing key competencies.
Key competencies are skills as they relate to a company or organization.
For example, in computer manufacturing,
a key competency is the company's ability to innovate in order to shorten time to market.
The idea behind key competencies is both simple and very powerful.
With limited resources, it makes sense for a company to
focus on their key competencies to gain a competitive advantage.
The problem, however, is how to identify and develop
a winning set of key competencies in real time under competitive pressure.
These days, many MBA programs in the US and around the globe teach
current and future business leaders how to use
sophisticated models and techniques to identify and grow key competencies.
Some of the methods used are SWOT analysis,
VRINE analysis, value chain,
PESTEL analysis, and many others.
Building on the successful implementation of key competencies in the business world,
you can utilize a similar approach to organize and
optimize your skill-building activities for career growth.
Strategically speaking, you may think about
your set of skills as emerging key competencies.
Then the fundamental question is what the current value of your skills is,
where you want to outperform your competition,
and how you can get from here to there given
the ever-changing environment and competitive pressure?
As you can see, your ability to manage, develop,
and promote your skills to accomplish
your career goals is the central element of your personal strategy.
Just like a business manager,
you may significantly benefit from
strategic management training focused on personal strategy.
Therefore, taking a class and individual skills management might be a really good idea.
Here's another reason for you to consider investing time into skills management.
In an MBA program,
all functional courses are usually holding
together and hinging on a capstone study in strategic management.
In your individual career development journey,
all skill-building activities can be linked to a study in individual skills management,
serving as a linchpin.
You may also think about skills management as
a commanding height from where you can plan and execute your professional development.
Are you ready to give it a try?
If so, let's think about
the expected learning outcomes of an individual skills management course.
What do you think you should be able to achieve upon completion of such a study?
What exactly you're going to learn?
What new capabilities would you like to gain?
How different are you going to be?
Once again, we can get useful ideas from the business world.
For example, what do you think are
the main outcomes of a strategic management course for a business manager?
Usually, upon completion of such a study,
business managers are supposed to know how to objectively
evaluate their organization against the competition,
identify and develop a set of superior key competencies,
implement and monitor a course of action to withstand the competition.
To do so, a business manager is expected to learn how to use a range of models,
tools, and techniques and demonstrate strategic thinking.
In the next lecture, you will see how you can implement
a similar approach to individual skills management.