Product and competence development

The table has been constructed by first disaggregating the key business activities that the strategy function normally has to discharge within any company, as described in chapter 1, and then linking these seven business activities with the particular types of tools and techniques found to be in use. These key business activities were defined as market and environmental analysis, product and competence development, resource allocation, performance measurement, financial management, the make/buy decision and the use of IT and Internet solutions. 

As Table 7.1 indicates the operations and production survey covered 114 companies (see Appendix D) and 50 tools and techniques were found to be in use, with 431 total uses. This meant that, when compared with the 73 tools and techniques discovered in the literature survey (reported in chapter 6) there were 23 operations and production tools and techniques that were not found to be in use at all (see Table 7.2). This was the highest incidence of non-usage, a distinction that was shared with the procurement and supply function. This clearly indicates that, while the operations and production function has a wide range of tools and techniques to choose from, the function either chooses not to, or is not able to, use all of those available. Many of the tools and techniques not found to be in use focus on the product and competence development and/or the planning, design and work... 

These findings are reinforced when one considers in more detail the use of tools and techniques across the five broad business activities defined earlier in chapter 1. There it was argued that in the operations and production function the major business activities can be sub-divided into product and competence development planning, design and work organisation, process and systems improvement, performance measurement and, IT and Internet solutions. Clearly, there is necessarily some overlap between these activities, and this fact is captured in Table 7.3 where the tools and techniques found to be in use are listed by the relevant business activities. As is clear from this analysis some tools and techniques can be used in more than one business activity and, when this occurs, the tool or technique has been recorded under each relevant business activity. This also means that the figures do not sum to 100%. 

It is interesting to note that the operations and production function does not appear to be heavily involved in more strategic business activities. This conclusion is drawn because the product and competence development business activity recorded only 29.92% of total business activity usages. It would appear that, while the operation and production function understands that it must create effective and efficient operational processes and systems, that it is less involved in the development of new products or core competencies than other functions, like strategy and marketing and sales. This is a reassuring finding not least because, as we saw in our previous... 

As the table reveals in the strategy function the most prevalent tool and technique usage occurs in the two primary business activities associated with market and environmental analysis (46.06%) and product and competence development (40.62%). These are clearly the two primary roles and responsibilities of the strategy function in any firm. Following this the function places somewhat less emphasis on the resource allocation (24.08%), performance management (18.63%) and financial management (16.74%) business... 

Product and Competence Development 104.26 Strategy, Marketing Sales, Operations Production... 

The findings here seem to confirm that there is some duplication of effort across functions, but also that performance management, product and competence development, process and system improvement and external environmental analysis (of markets, competitors and suppliers) are the primary business activities for which tools and techniques are being used within companies as a whole. This seems to support the view that, when managers use tools and techniques, they appear to understand by and large what are the right tools for the job. This is clearly a good part of the metaphorical curate s egg of tool and technique use. 

D Souza C, Nakano MM, Corbell N, Zuber P. Amino-acylation site mutations in amino acid-activating domains of surfactin synthetase Effects on sutfactin production and competence development in Bacillus subtilis. J Bacterial 1993 175 3502-3510. 

The field may enter into an economic decline when either income is falling (production decline) or costs are rising, and in many cases both are happening. Whilst there may be scope for further investment in a field in economic decline, it should not tie up funds that can be used more effectively in new projects. A mature development must continue to generate a positive cashflow and compete with other projects for funds. The options that are discussed in this section give some idea of the alternatives that may be available to manage the inevitable process of economic decline, and to extend reservoir and facility life. 

Within the realm of physical reality, and most important in pharmaceutical systems, the unconstrained optimization problem is almost nonexistent. There are always restrictions that the formulator wishes to place or must place on a system, and in pharmaceuticals, many of these restrictions are in competition. For example, it is unreasonable to assume, as just described, that the hardest tablet possible would also have the lowest compression and ejection forces and the fastest disintegration time and dissolution profile. It is sometimes necessary to trade off properties, that is, to sacrifice one characteristic for another. Thus, the primary objective may not be to optimize absolutely (i.e., a maxima or minima), but to realize an overall pre selected or desired result for each characteristic or parameter. Drug products are often developed by teaching an effective compromise between competing characteristics to achieve the best formulation and process within a given set of restrictions. 

When a new chemical product is first developed, it can often be protected by a patent in the early years of commercial exploitation. For a product to be eligible to be patented, it must be novel, useful and unobvious. If patent protection can be obtained, this effectively gives the producer a monopoly for commercial exploitation of the product until the patent expires. Patent protection lasts for 20 years from the fifing date of the patent. Once the patent expires, competitors can join in and manufacture the product. If competitors cannot wait until the patent expires, then alternative competing products must be developed. 

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