Products and process alone cannot help organizations sustain loyal customers. They also need highly motivated, dedicated, and involved employees who are very passionate about their work and organization; in short, they need `engaged employees. But nurturing engaged employees requires a lot of effort and skill on the part of HR managers and calls for a different HR philosophy in the organization. This article provides some prescriptive measures as to how HR managers can help their employees become engaged with their work and organization.

Back in the 1990s, CK Prahalad and Gary Hamel gave us the concept of `core competency'. This core competency is something that is inimitable and is the prime driver of sustainable competitive advantage for a company. In describing this core competency, Prahalad and Hamel used the example of a fruit bearing tree whose roots were taken as the core competencysomething that is unseen, yet nourishing the whole tree.

In today's fast-paced, competitive corporate world, securing and sustaining loyal customers is every manager's top priority. Securing this is surely a company's sustainable competitive advantage. But then a question arises to these managers"How should we do this?" In other words, where is the source of the core competence? Does it lie in the products and service offerings, in processes or in the people that the organization has? Using the rule of imitability, we can say that competitors can match your products as well as processes. But can they match or replicate the dedicated and committed work force which you have nurtured over the years? Can they build a workforce which is passionately involved with the company?

HRM Review Magazine, Employee Engagement, Corporate Perspectives, HR Philosophy, Core Competencies, Corporate World, Customer Loyalty, Gallup Organization, Top Level Management, Organizational Culture, Management Teams, Innovative Leadership, Organizational Structures, Decision-making Process.