The influence of human resources on competitive advantage in croatian banking industry

Human resources in recent time became increasingly important factor for gaining competitive advantage. More and more industries realize people as key resource to stand out from never stronger competition in constantly changing environment. This becomes especially relevant for service industries in which employees play crucial role. It is not important just to hunt the right talent, but to train hired professionals and support stuff well, improve their satisfaction and motivate them to work even harder in order for company to enhance its long-term value. This paper is concerned with the role of resources in building business strategy. In particular, it is concerned with identifying human resources as key source of sustainable competitive advantage in Croatian banking industry. Competitiveness is related to company effectiveness, which is determined by whether the company satisfies the need of stakeholders such as shareholders, customers, employees, government, community etc. In order for company to establish and maintain competitive advantage, it needs to provide services customers’ value. The value of a product or service is determined by its quality and how closely product/service fits customers’ needs. Nevertheless, it requires specific set of resources and capabilities which support positioning of a product. The paper is analyzing the role of human resources in particular as the major driver of successful positioning of a banking industry’s product. It examines the essential characteristics needed for resource to be exploited and turned into competitive advantage in highly competitive market, as Croatian banking industry is