How Do You Audit Your Organization's True Core Competencies?
You audit your organization's true core competencies by honestly assessing two capabilities critical to expansion — customer development and product innovation — and identifying which one genuinely outperforms, because that strength should anchor the expansion strategy. Most companies excel at one, not both, and pretending otherwise leads to overreach.
The two capabilities to assess: - Customer development — lead generation, customer acquisition, sales pipeline management, and account management, typically owned by sales and marketing. - Product innovation — envisioning new products, packaging, understanding customer needs, managing the development process, and building compelling experiences, typically owned by product and engineering.
The CEO is uniquely positioned to run this audit, working with the leadership team and HR or a third party. There are a few practical approaches: acquire a formal competency tool and run an internal assessment, or conduct an informal assessment by asking department leaders pointed questions.
For sales, those questions probe real performance: How well does the firm attract and retain top business-development talent? Is the team oriented toward farming existing accounts or hunting new ones? Do most salespeople hit quota? Is the bigger challenge generating qualified leads or converting them?
For product, the questions probe genuine innovation: Does the team rapidly understand customer problems and translate them into simple solutions? Are the right technical skills in place? Can the team assess the competitive landscape and differentiate? Is it applying original thinking, or merely executing a roadmap?
The output is an honest verdict on which capability is strongest — and therefore which expansion strategies the company can realistically win.
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