Competition, competence, competitive advantage.

Mateescu, Liviu-Mihail ; Neagu, Ana-Maria

1. INTRODUCTION

As an economic reality and as a mechanism for resource allocation, the market is a social creation, appeared many centuries ago which has evolved over time and space.

Competition represents a specific interested behavior of some ownership subjects, who, in order to achieve their objectives, get into cooperation and confrontation relationships with others, this being the expression of the free initiative.

The aim of the present paper it is to explain in an accurate manner what represents the achievement of competitiveness in the context of competition by valuing most important resources, competences. We believe that competitive advantage in the economic framework today consist in a sum of interactive factors that are not exclusively related to economic essence but on human abilities and skills. In the light of economic realities today we believe that competitiveness factors are more complex and dynamic that in the past. We must mention that human abilities, knowledge, information and ICT sector have a positive influence on economic strategic advantage between productive agents. The discussion on such new production factors is not new and has become a controversial one. The competitiveness issue at a micro level we consider that is mostly related on global competences. But global competences are directly correlated to individual competences and this means that human resource and their education is the main factor for sustainable competitive advantage. We propose by this paper to underline the importance of such factors in the context of achieving competitive advantage by exploiting employees' competences in the context of market competition.

2. ROLE OF COMPETENCE FOR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

The potential of an organization's sustainable competitive advantage depends on the rareness and imitability of its resources and capabilities.

Distinctive competence may be defined as some skill, activity, or capacity that the business is uniquely good at in comparison to rival firms.

Producing better quality products than competitors, having a more knowledgeable and skilled workforce, or being able to react to customer demands much more quickly than competitors are examples of distinctive competence. The less imitable a competitive advantage is the more cost disadvantage is faced by the competitor in imitating these competencies. Competence represents a bundle of skills and technologies that enable a company to provide a particular benefit to customers (Hamel & Prahalad, 1994). Competences are the roots of competitiveness and individual products and services are the fruit. Although the concept of competence has not been in use until past years, the problem of defining and identifying what constitutes competence at work is not new. The competitive strength of a company lies in competitive advantages and distinctive competencies that it possesses reported to other competitors. To consider a firm competitive it is necessary to make a rigorous analysis of both company and its activity environment (Voiculescu, 2001).

Competitive advantage is at the heart of firm's performance. It is concerned with the interplay between the types of competitive advantage, i.e., cost, and differentiation, and the scope of the firm's activities.

A sustainable competitive advantage creates some barriers that make imitation difficult. Without a sustainable competitive advantage, above average performance is usually a sign of harvesting (Porter, 1985).

A competitive advantage essentially has to be one that not only merely represents better performance than that of its competitors, but also delivers genuine value to the customer (Kak, 2002).

The secret of a sustainable competitive advantage lies in permanently progress of technologies people and skills.

Competence = knowledge + cleverness + attitudes + skills (1)

We must recognize that the most valuable asset of an organization is its people and the competencies they bring to work each day. The competencies of people include (Ogrean et al., 2009):

* Knowledge, about the organization, about administrative processes and procedures, about clients and about their special area of expertise;

* Cleverness, including problem solving, analysis, report writing, planning skills;

* Attitudes, such as reliability, perseverance, interpersonal behavior, patience, flexibility and thoroughness; and

* Skills, such as eye-hand coordination, dexterity, strength and balance.

The internal resources and competences of an organization play a very important role in building competitive advantage. The organizations that has competitive advantages, that cannot be eroded (no matter how much change is there in the environment), must combine good traditional production factors with rare, exclusive skills and abilities of there employees.

Professional competence is the ability to perform activities required at the workplace. Professional skills are acquired by formal, non-formal or informal techniques.

Complementary competencies consist of knowledge and common or usual skills which can be assimilated easily from educational institutions personnel employment or by training.

Strong or rare competencies are those knowledge and skills that constitute the power of the company. There are empowered in people like tacit knowledge and must be protected, defended and encouraged to develop. These competencies are gained with hard efforts, they require a long time and they are not available on the market when needed.

3. COMPETITVENESS FACTORS AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Competitiveness suggests safety, efficiency, quality, high productivity, adaptability, success, modern management, superior products, and lower costs. Competitive advantage represents when a firm is able to deliver the same benefits as competitors but at a lower cost (cost advantage), or deliver benefits that exceed those of competing products (differentiation advantage). Traditional sources of competitive advantage, such as production capacities, financial resources, distribution channels or economies of scale, are necessary but not sufficient for success in today's business world. It is commonly acknowledged that people are the key assets in the new world market and that all other assets are rather more commodities that can be purchased at market prices, because only the human asset has potential to learn, grow, and contribute to sustainable economic development.

Sustainable economic growth and improvement of living standard of the population are determined by the development of economic competitiveness in the context of the international challenges, challenges that must be transformed into economic opportunities. It is important to evaluate the market opportunities in close relation with the company resources and its environment. We can say that any resource can be used as strategic one and that competitive advantage can come from any aspect of the business activity.

In order for employees to fulfill their potential and act as a source of competitive advantage, they must be knowledgeable and motivated. Enterprises need to continually invest in employees' knowledge, skills, motivation and behaviors, as well as preserving the required number and structure of employees. In light of those mentioned so far, we can say: "quality" is strictly conditioned by the "competence" level engaged in the production process and in organization itself.

A product / service is of high "quality" if the one who produced / provided is "competent". Considering the "quality" as a measure of an achieved satisfaction, an organization that fully meets the demands and the expectations of its customers is appreciated as an organization "strongly oriented to quality".

Obviously in order to answer adequately the customer request and expectations, the organization must be "highly capable". An organization competence can be considered as comprising three components: technical competence, human competence and technological competence.

Co = Cu * Ctn * Cth

[C.sub.o] = Organizational competitiveness; [C.sub.u] = Human competence; [C.sub.tn] = Technical Competence; [C.sub.th] = Technological competence.

By human competence of the organization we understand the number and the qualification of the staff required to use the equipment according to the technology.

By technical competence of the organization we understand all the endowments, of the infrastructure, of the material items that an organization has at a time.

By technological competence of the organization we understand all the rules, procedures, which require the use of the existing technology. Thus, in an organization that invests in technology and not simultaneously in growth of human competence, in a very short time, may confront with serious problems reflected in declining of the company profitability.

Similarly, if you invest in increasing human competence, but there is no investment in technological competence (rules / procedures) in a relatively short time, phenomena will occur as: surprising departure from the organization, trade tensions, difficulties in ensuring payment of salaries etc.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

All three "competencies", determine the success of an organization. They are in a strict conditioning (Figure 1).

An organization in order to continue to develop must invest in a balanced way, both in technical and human competence, and also in technological competence. Companies faced with a real competition and purchasing competitive advantage are interested to find out: what is the best product on market, which are most profitable clients or products, which products must attract in order obtain maximum profitability and what are the most adequate process that benefit from cost return advantage.

Every producer can use technology, marketing, production factors or other approaches but unless they develop specific internal process based on human competencies they will not provide and benefit from sustainable advantage because others competitors can use the same strategies to match its every move.

4. CONCLUSION

Competence is a concept and a dynamic reality that designates professional success. Concluding, we can say that any resource can be used as strategic and competitive advantage can come from any aspect of business activity. The competition requires constant innovation entailing a rapid technological evolution of products. Competitive advantage in the today times is more difficult to achieve. We believe that a more coordinate attitude and more attention driven to human competencies, investing in such competencies, may lead to sustainable competitive advantage for any agent of production. Also we consider that organizations competitiveness can benefit from sustainability premise if at his level there are specific policies that encourage permanent investment in people, abilities and skills.

5. REFFERNCES

Hamel, G. & Prahalad C. K. (1994). Competing for the Future, Harvard, Business School, ISBN 0-87584-716-1, Harvard

Kak, A (2002). Sustainable Competitive Advantage with Core Competence : A Review. Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management, Vol 3 Issue : 4 December 2002, pp 1-12, ISSN: 0974-0198

Porter, M., (1990), The Competitive Advantage of Nations, Harvard Business Review, ISBN 978-068-484-147-2.

Ogrean, C; Herciu, M &Belascu, L. (2009) Competency-Based Management and Global Competencies--Challenges for Firm Strategic Management, International Review of Business Research Papers, Vol. 5, No. 4, June 2009, pp. 114-122, ISSN: 1832-9543

Voiculescu, D. (2001), Competition and competitiveness, Economic Publisher, Bucharest, Romania, ISBN 973-590-538-8.