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Minicase $4-$Dr$.$ Dre's Core Competency: Coolness Factor

Dr$.$ Dre's Core Competency: Coolness Factor

This activity is important because, as a manager, you must be able to sustain your organization's competitive advantage. To do this, you will need to identify and develop your organization's unique core competencies.

The goal of this exercise is to demonstrate your understanding of the relationship between core competency and competitive advantage by applying these concepts to the story of Beats success.

Read the MiniCase below and answer the questions that follow.

Andre Young$-$also known as Dr$.$ Dre$-$became the first hip$-$hop billionaire after Apple acquired Beats Electronics for $$3$ billion $($in $2014).$ Dr$.$ Dre has a long track record as a successful music producer, rapper, and entrepreneur. Known fry his strong work ethic, he expects nothing less than perfection from the people he works with. He shares some of the personality traits ascribed to the late Steve Jobs, co$-$founder and longtime CEO of Apple.

As an entrepreneur, Dr$.$ Dre created and sold several successful music record labels. He also co$-$founded Beats Electronics with Jimmy lovine, a record and film producer who is also an entrepreneur. Founded in $2008,$ Beats Electronics is best known for its premium consumer headphones, Beats by Dr$.$ Dre, which Dr$.$ Dre claims allow listeners to hear all the music. Since $2014,$ the company has been offering Beats Music, a streaming subscription service. With its headphones and streaming service, Beats strives to "bring the energy, emotion, and excitement of playback in the recording studio to the listening experience and introduce an entirely new generation to the possibilities of premium sound entertainment." ${?}^1$ However, many acoustics experts maintain that playback of digitally compressed MP$3$ audio files is inferior to high fidelity. Also, the sound quality of Beats headphones is considered poor compared to that of other premium$-$brand headphones such as Bose, JBL$,$ and Sennheiser.