Even though a distinctive competency is certainly considered to be a corporation’s key strength, a key strength may not always be a distinctive competency. As competitors attempt to imitate another company’s competency (especially during hypercompetition), what was once a distinctive competency becomes a minimum requirement to compete in the industry.
Even though the competency may still be a core competency and thus a strength, it is no longer unique. For example, when Maytag Company alone made high-quality home appliances, this ability was a distinctive competency. As other appliance makers imitated Maytag’s quality control and design processes, this continued to be a key strength (that is, a core competency) of Maytag, but it was less and less a distinctive competency.