Strategic Value Management: Stock Value Creation and the Management of the Firm

Chapter 4. Resources Strategies

This chapter introduces a new concept into strategic management: resources strategies as the basis of a firm's success. Modern economics, strategic management, and international business state that success is based on resources. However, so far, strategic management has not developed a body of resources strategies to generate successful competitive and growth strategies. Though this chapter is based on the classic corporate strategy, its prescriptions are adapted to a modern view of resources and the need to create stock value.

The resource view of the firm (RVF) states that unique inimitable resources are the center of business success. How must resources be managed in order to create stock value?

As we saw in Chapter 3, Kaplan and Norton (2004, 2007) classify intangible resources as: human (employee skills, talent, and knowledge); information (databases, information systems, networks, and technology infrastructure); and organization (culture, leadership, employee alignment, teamwork, and knowledge management). Edvinsson (1997, 1998) incorporates relationships as key resources: relationships with customers, employees, shareholders, community, and other stakeholders are the key to developing intellectual capital.

This chapter does not focus on how to develop such resources; that discussion belongs to other business disciplines such as marketing, operations ...