Nike Strategic Analysis

linking competencies and succession planning

Executive Summary

The importance of competencies and competency models has been seen from the 1960’s onward. Competencies address both current performance and issues of growth. When the employees are the interface between the company and the customer, or with a business partner it makes immense sense to identify the skills that can help them perform better. But having done this is not enough. It is imperative that we look at and assess how these competencies not only help to develop individuals but also help to ensure consistent survival and growth of an organization.

Leadership Development and the Leadership Pipeline are not just meant for the C-Suite employees of a company, but is infact for all the employees, including the lowest entry-level employee. So then we begin to look at leadership pipeline in terms of Succession Planning.

Through this study I have looked at top management succession planning and how it has been simplified with the use of competency models.

INTRODUCTION

Literature

For business strategy to support business goals and mission, it is important that we build competency framework for the company. There are environmental imperatives that lead to the development of a competency framework. These include the impact of globalization, corporate governance, communication, impact of technology and other events that affect business worldwide.

Some dictionaries do not differentiate between ‘competence’ and ‘competency’ but there is a marked difference between them. Competence means a skill and the standard of performance reached while competency refers to the behavior by which it is achieved. One describes what people can do while the other focuses on how they do it. The interface between the two is that the competency application