Strategic management, Core competence and flexibility: Learning issues for select pharmaceutical organizations

An organization's ability to survive and grow is based on advantages that stem from core competencies. In the longer run the only source for being ahead of competitors is to learn faster than its competition. The climate of openness is a facilitating factor to create new knowledge continuously that will be required to meet the future competitive environmental changes. The notion of flexibility in strategic management is highly relevant as it is important for surviving in present economic scenario of globalization and liberalization. Strategic flexibility provides a congenial environment for the development of core competence and plays a pivotal role to define where an organization must excel in order to maintain leadership. The organizational core competence provides basis for generating sustainable competitive advantage, which in turn leads to corporate success. The long-range strategies must address the present and future needs of the customers.

The case studies of two pharmaceutical organizations have been developed to find out the issues related to core competence development, organizational learning, strategy formulation with core competence, and role of flexibility in strategy formulation. The study is based on Flexible Systems Methodology and has been conducted through interviews. The case studies highlight that organizations need new strategic imperative stressing on nurturing core competencies which form the foundation of a sustainable competitive advantage. The less imitable the core competencies, the more they become the factors responsible for corporate success, and greater is the economic return.