Publisher Summary The primary sources of a successful business are its core competencies and its business model, which builds on its core competencies. Core competencies result from the collective learning in a firm, especially the ability to coordinate diverse skills and streams of technologies within the organization. The five dimensions of a business model (customer selection, value capture, differentiation and strategic control, scope, and channels) are linked as an integrated design. The best business model is the one that is designed for customer relevance and high profitability. The four categories for measuring environmental performance are materials use, energy consumption, waste output, and pollutant releases. A corporation provides value to its customers and needs new measures of customer value related to materials, energy, waste, and pollutant output. The value chain begins with the corporation's assets, core competencies, and organizational capital. A value chain is most efficient when there are fewer transactions between producers and their final customers. This chapter concludes with a discussion about the managing of the value chain.