Resource Audit
A resource audit lists what you actually have, financial, physical, human, technology, brand, and rates each one for whether it's rare and hard to copy, because that's what turns a resource into an advantage rather than just an asset.
Five boxes fill a grid, one per resource category, each one waiting to be run through the same four tests.
Reach for this when…
- You're setting strategy and nobody's actually inventoried what you have to work with.
- You suspect you're sitting on an asset nobody's valuing properly.
- Two departments are quietly duplicating the same capability.
How to run it
- List resources across five categories: financial, physical, human, technology, brand.
- Rate each one: is it valuable, rare, hard to copy, and are you organised to use it.
- Flag the ones that pass all four tests. Those are your real advantages.
- Flag the ones you're paying to maintain that pass none of the tests.
- Feed the real advantages into strategy, and stop propping up the rest.
A worked example
Situation. Elena Ruiz ran a textile manufacturer in Valencia, Spain, that had been losing margin to larger competitors for two years without knowing exactly why.
Applied. The audit across the five categories showed her real advantage wasn't her machinery, rare but easily matched by anyone with capital, but a dye technique her father had developed that competitors couldn't replicate.
Result. She stopped competing on volume and price against the bigger players and repositioned around the dye technique, recovering the margin within a year.
The catch
Intangible resources like reputation or a particular skill are genuinely hard to value, and the audit tempts people toward false precision on things that are really judgment calls. It's also a snapshot: a resource that was rare and hard to copy last year can be commoditised by a competitor within months.
The resource that feels most impressive to list is rarely the one that's actually rare. Check the four tests, not the ego.
Origin: Jay Barney (VRIO framework, Resource-Based View)