Core Competence

Core competence is the standard buzzword to refer to what your business does to make money (like software) as opposed to what you have to do just to be in business (like balance the books) or that you're trying to expand into but which you're really not qualified for. Companies are always trying to stay focused on their core competence. Yesterday I was party to a conversation between two people at work. One was giving the other a hard time about having a maid. The one with the maid was saying that everyone he knew in San Francisco had a maid, and it was worth it. "Cleaning is not my core competence," he says. I asked if his core competence was sitting on his ass watching television, but he felt that drinking was closer.