It is important to place a company's strategic focus on its distinct capabilities. these core competencies n\ay offer the organization the potential to compete in different markets, provide significant value to end-user customers, and create barriers to competitor duplication. For example, Hewlett-Packard has an awesome core competence in ink jet printer technology, enabling the company to become the world leader in printers. It leveraged this competency to develop the ink jet fax with a Japanese partner, which provided a core competency in fax technology. Core competency is an important factor in shaping the organization's mission. In contrast to the diversification wave of the 1970s, today many companies are deciding what they do best and concentrating their efforts on these core competencies. Examples of distinctive capabilities for four companies are shown in Exhibit 2-6.A key influence on the mission is management's decision about what it wants the business to be. Acknowledging the constraining nature of capabilities, resources, oppor­tunities, and problems, management has a lot of flexibility in selecting the mission as well as changing it in the future. Sometimes the priorities and preferences of the CEO or the board of directors may override factual evidence in selecting the business mission. For example, many of the diversifications pursued by companies in the 1970s didn't work very well, and resulted in the restructuring and downsizing of many companies during the last decade.