Question

Establish SABMILLER'S distinctive resources/core competences and determine the extent to which they match its critical success factors

Answer 1

SABmiller`s distinctive resources/ core competences

Distinctive resources and core competences are those that underpin competitive advantage. They are valuable to the organisation and customers, rare, difficult to imitate and the organisation has systems and processes in place to support them. Critical success factors are the few areas in an organisation where things must go right for it to flourish.

In the case if SABMiller one can say that the critical success factors, going by the proposed strategy of consolidation are; sustainable competitive advantage and customer retention.

SABMiller’s’ distinctive resources are its brand name and corporate culture.

SABMiller’s brand name is of value to the organisation because it acts as a strong marketing tool. It is also valuable to the customers because it makes them identify the products with ease. It is rare in the sense that there is only one organisation by that name no other organisation can register itself under the brand name. It is difficult to imitate because it is the brand is protected through patents. It can therefore be classified as a distinctive capability offering the organisation sustainable competitive advantage.

SABMiller’s corporate culture is valuable to the organisation and customers in that it determines how things are done in this organisation. It is rare that no other organisation can do operate in exactly the same way SABMiller does. It is difficult to imitate as it is an intangible capability. The organisation has processes and systems in place that fully support this culture and as a result it can be classified as a distinctive capability that can give an organisation sustainable competitive advantage.