Resources and its types
- 1. Resources Dr. N. Yuvaraj Assistant Professor Achariya Arts and Science College Villianur , Puducherry
- 4. Resources - Human, financial, physical, and knowledge factors that provide a firm to perform its business processes. Key resources are the main inputs that your company uses to create its value proposition, service its customer segment and deliver the product to the customer. These are the most important things you need to have for your business model to work and business models are usually based on a number of tangible and intangible resources.
- 5. These are the main assets that your company, in particular, requires to create the end product. It is usually differentiated from the key resources being utilized by your competitors. Key resources deal with the operational end of the business spectrum and define what kind of materials you need, what kind of equipment is required and the types of people you need to employ.
- 6. This aspect plays a direct role in bringing your value proposition to life for your chosen customer segment and defines the minimum you need to have to deliver to your customers. The business model of an organization is a major indicator of the type of key resource being utilized by the company.
- 7. Hence, there is a clear difference between the key resources employed by a microchip manufacturer and a microchip designer. The microchip designer will probably consider his human resources as the key resource. While the manufacturer will favor his production hardware as his key resource. Key resources are directly relevant to the number and type of key activities your company engages in.
- 8. Ultimately, the quality of your key resources will impact the sustainability and profitability of your company. For example, if your company doubled its sales in a year, and started growing beyond your expectations, you would only be able to handle such growth if you are fully cognizant of what your key resources are and what impact such increased demand would have on them.
- 9. Hence, you need to be able to tell whether your physical resources would be able to provide for such demand or require additional investment. Similarly, will your current human resources suffice or will additional talent need to be recruited to meet business requirements and so on.
- 10. TYPES OF KEY RESOURCES physical, intellectual, human and financial.
- 11. 1.Physical resources Physical assets are tangible resources that a company uses to create its value proposition. These could include equipment, inventory, buildings, manufacturing plants and distribution networks that enable the business to function. A microchip manufacturing company like Intel needs semi- conductor plants as a key resource and without adequate infrastructure available, the organization will fail to innovate and keep up with its business customer demands and needs.
- 12. 2. Intellectual resources These are non-physical, intangible resources like brand, patents, IP, copyrights, and even partnerships. Intellectual resources take a great deal of time and expenditure to develop. But once developed, they can offer unique advantages to the company. Nike and Sony are heavily dependent on their brand to sell their products to a customer segment that is devoted to the brand.
- 13. Similarly, Microsoft and Adobe rely on software that have been tweaked and perfected over years of trial and error. Some businesses have very strong intellectual resources. Google is currently buying a patent library from Nortel to boost up its intellectual resources.
- 14. 3. Human resources Employees are often the most important and yet the most easily overlooked assets of an organization. Specifically for companies in the service industries or require a great deal of creativity and an extensive knowledge pool, human resources such as customer service representatives, software engineers or scientists are pivotal.
- 15. FedEx truck drivers are the human resources that combine with the physical resource, such as the trucks to create deliver the product to FedEx customers and create the signature FedEx experience. Novartis, the pharmaceutical giant, is highly dependent on its team of top scientists, as well as its highly qualified sales force to create and sell its medicines to doctors.
- 16. Similarly, UBS Wealth Management is one of the premier banks in the world, but without its team of refined and knowledgeable bankers, UBS would fail to garner the same customer reviews and satisfaction as it does currently.
- 17. 4. Financial resources The financial resource includes cash, lines of credit and the ability to have stock option plans for employees. All businesses have key resources in finance, but some will have stronger financial resources than other, such as banks that are based entirely on the availability of this key resource. Similarly, China Life insurance sells insurance to its wide customer base.
- 18. However, if China Life Insurance does not have sufficient capital to cover insurance claims, it will not be able to survive in the market. For a car manufacturer, the physical resources are in the facilities such as assembly robots. Another key resource could be intellectual property such as patents and even customer intelligence.
- 19. The latter would come in very handy specifically knowing their preferences when you want to offer repeat customers special discounts and deals. For car manufacturers, designers would be a key human resource. In terms of financial resources, a manufacturer will require capital to invest in infrastructure and inventory but can additionally also be used to provide customers with the option of buying cars on lease or taking out a loan on better terms than those provided by banks or other financial institutions.
- 20. KEY RESOURCES ACCORDING TO TYPES OF BUSINESSES The business model canvas stipulates that all businesses can be categorized into three types. All three of these categories contain businesses with similar key resource requirements. These three categories are Product Driven Businesses, Scope driven Businesses and Infrastructure Driven Businesses.
- 21. Product Driven Businesses are companies that focus all their functions on the creation and sale of a product. It has unique characteristics and a customer segment willing and eager to purchase it. Key resources for such businesses are intellectual and human; since typically these organizations have intellectual property and expertise in their particular industry and niche. Rovio is the creator of the famous mobile game called Angry Birds is one such example.
- 22. Scope Driven Businesses These are dedicated to providing a value proposition to a particular customer segment. An organization aiming to specialize in being the IT provider to all Law firms within an area would fall under the banner of a Scope Driven Business. Such businesses have key resources in their well-developed intelligence about their target customer segment, an established set of processes and in some cases infrastructure such as specialized service centers.
- 23. Infrastructure Driven Businesses These, as the name suggests, achieve profitability through leveraging their developed and implemented infrastructure. The telecommunications industry invests heavily in developing the telecommunications infrastructure in a country and then reaps the rewards for years with only minor investments to keep their systems updated. Retailers are also infrastructure driven businesses because they depend primarily on their established infrastructure to sustain their profitability in the long-term.
- 24. Thank You