Coronavirus and Global Tech Events

3 minute read

The world has faced yet another massive threat to the mankind in the recent history – Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Although the initial impact was mainly on China, now it has become a global threat as the virus has speared outside the Great Wall. The situation has created much concerns for all the countries and governments in the world.

Not like in the past, with the development of new technologies, we say that the world has become a global village, making everyone close to each other, not just using communication, but also making global travel easy. As a result, people travel more for different reasons.  Global events, especially the ones related to technology and telecoms are held in numbers around the globe all across the year. These include global events and regional events. 

While the coronavirus’s impact to the world is multi-fold, one of the areas relevant to the telecom and tech are the global events. There are many organizations in the world organizing annual and regional events and these events are important for the right balance of the ecosystem. Some key examples are GSMA, PTC, Terrapinn, Layer123, Informatech, Linux Foundation, MEF and TM Forum. These organizations produce many flagship events including Mobile World Congress (MWC)-Barcelona, MWC-Shanghai, Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC), Telecoms World, Next Generation Optical Networking & Data Center Interconnect (NGON & DCI) World, Broadband World Forum (BBWF), Network Virtualization, Open Source Summit (OSS) and Digital Transformation World (DTW).

Even though today's technologies and advancements in communications does not require us really travel to discuss and share knowledge, these events over the years have proved that the industry still like to meet in person at least once a year – for many reasons. This requires travel – mostly on air. One of the hardly hit industries with coronavirus is the travel industry. For example, take Singapore – a main travel hubs in the world and according to this report, it was empty few days back. Airports and airplanes, no matter how good you keep them hygienic and clean, are susceptible for the spread of the virus. Many people have cancelled their travels and many organizations have imposed travel bans for their employees. 

As a result, many global tech events have been cancelled or postponed, biggest news being the cancellation of the MWC 2020 – an event started in 2006. Another example is Telecoms World Asia 2020. Going forward, we may see many other events too will be either postponed or cancelled. After all, we all agree that the safety of everyone is paramount. 

As already mentioned, we can use technology like remote meetings, webinars, virtual reality, holograms etc., but they won’t be that effective compared to the overall experience you get in attending an event physically. While the world goes dark, the telecom and tech events landscape will also be dark, hopefully temporally. Till then let’s be patient and keep the industry moving.

Anuradha Udunuwara, ARC Tube | @AnuradhaU

Photo by Dimitri Karastelev on Unsplash

Identifying, analyzing and managing organizational resources, capabilities, competencies accurately

Estimated Read Time: 8 min
 
All organizations have resources and capabilities. However what we hear today from most of the organizations is that they do not have adequate resources to run day to day activities. As a result the ultimate corporate objectives of the organization will be negatively impacted. One of the main reasons for this is the lack of knowledge in identifying, analyzing and managing resources and capabilities. This blog will help you to identify, analyze and manage resources correctly. 

What are resources?

First, we need know what are resources? In general we state those are all tangible and intangible assets owned or managed by the organizations. Then what are capabilities? it is the way in which the organizations use their resources. Next, it is important to identify what is the relationship between resources and capabilities. You need capabilities to access and manage resources. For an example, your organization may have ample staff, but management do not have the capability of managing them. Then the result will be negatively impacted on their performance.

Now let’s look at how an organization could identify their resource base correctly. Using different methods to categories organization’s resources and capabilities is an important aspect of internal analysis since it assures that the management does not miss any important strengths or weaknesses. We can use a framework developed by Thompson et al (2013) for resource   categorization. According to this categorization, resource are mainly divided in to two parts as tangible and intangible resources.

Tangible Resources

Under tangible resource, first one is physical resources. This includes resources like manufacturing plants, lands, machinery, outlets, vehicle fleets, oil, minerals, etc.  Majorly of the items in this category comprise of property facilities and natural resources.

Second sub type is financial resources. This is all about   the worth of the company in financial terms. For an example, it could be working capital, cash borrowing capacity, market securities, etc. 

Next sub category is technological assets. This includes ownership of copyrights and patents, along with things like trade secrets, manufacturing technologies and digital processes.

Last subcategory under tangible resources is the organizational resources. These include asset such as planning co-ordination and control systems and design of organizations management and marketing information systems.

Intangible Resources

When considering about intangible resource the first sub category is human asset and intellectual capital. This is more about the number of employees who work inside the organization and the skill levels of the staff, educational qualification they have, the certifications they have undergone, maybe the hands-on experience they have together with their capacity on innovation, creativity and knowledge sharing. Hence, it is very critical for an organization to enrich their employees with knowledge and train them.

I recall a popular post in social media - CFO asks the CEO ”What happens if we invest in developing our people and then they leave us?” and the CEO replies “What happens if we don’t, and they stay”

Next sub category is brand image and reputational assets.  These are stakeholder based assets starting from brand names, slogan, logos, trademarks, etc. Further, the organization corporate reputation, good will, country of origin, licensing opportunities and customer loyalty will play a major role here. 

Then let’s discuss about the sub category of relationships. These include the relationships your organization have with all internal, connected and external stakeholders. For an example, it can be your franchise operation, dealer and distribution network and how well the organization is managing the relationships with them.  I recall in year 2018 or 2017 KFC ran out of chicken in US as they have changed the logistic partner to DHL. Because of this decision the supply chain was interrupted.

Next, let’s discuss about the final sub category- organizational culture and incentive systems. These spread to the attitudes, norms, beliefs, assumptions and values of the company. The level of commitment and dedication of employees to go an extra mile motivated through proper incentive schemes.

The identification of resources can be done through the above framework and you can examine the level of impact on your company operation. Below is an example of such an analysis.

After identifying and analyzing resources, this can be developed as a sustainable competitive advantage. VRIN model which invented by Jay Barney 1991, can be used to identify your organization’s competitive advantage.

First, it has to be valuable. It has to create value for the company and other stakeholders.

Secondly it has to be rare. May be the IOS of Apple can be taken as an example.

Thirdly it has to be inimitable. Let’s take Coca Cola. It is the taste they have- it is imitable.

Finally it has to be non-substitutable. You can’t replace Coca Cola brand with Pepsi or any other cola.

Now let’s look at a working example;

According to above discussion, we can see that, identification and analysis of resource can be lead to sustainable competitive advantage. However, in order to sustain this advantage, it is important to have good knowledge and analysis of your capabilities and competencies.

Capabilities and competencies are the keys to explore your identified resources.  Under this, first we will discuss about core competencies. Organizations need to understand what their core activities are. An organization in telecommunication, their core activities will be digital communication technology and innovation where they can outsource their other activities like CSR, vehicle fleet management, etc. Knowing your core competency will allow you to focus on your related specific activities and plan your priorities according to that. In order to be a core competency it has to fulfill specific criterion.

Refer the below Knowledge Spark @4.55 for a detail explanation.

Dynamic Capabilities

Next, we will have to look on capabilities according to Ambraosini et al, 2009. There are three types of dynamic capabilities.

First one is incremental dynamic capabilities which allow the organization to exploit opportunities in the existing resource base and this occurs in stable environment.

The next one is renewing dynamic capabilities. These capabilities can be used in dynamic environments and still it is within the organization boundary and organization knows the market, competition and rules in the environment and this supports the organization to renew its resources base.

The third category is the regenerative dynamic capabilities and these can be used in hyper environments. This is the most uncertain and volatile environment beyond organizational boundaries. These capabilities will be used to turn the company to transform its entire business model and the dynamic capabilities that it has previously relied on. Your blue ocean strategies will be prominent in taking this risk or to minimize the risk of brand new transformation.

Check the below Knowledge Spark @7.34 for details. 

As mentioned in the beginning of the discussion, we will provide you with guidelines of identifying analyzing and managing organizational resources. According above facts, we can observe that organization should have in-depth analysis of their resources, competencies and capabilities to deploy their growth strategies in this digitally disrupted environments. However, there are various ways and means of analyzing resources, capabilities and competencies further. We will discuss and write in detail explanation of those innovative mechanisms in future blogs.

 
Chamara Ekanayake, ARCTube  | @echamara