The Distinctive Competencies Analysis (ACD) is a methodology that allows a business to identify the abilities to be possesses and which opportunities to be invested in or disinvested.

Constantly, and above all in times of crisis, it is necessary to identify distinctive competencies, be they proprietary or acquired, distinguishing between:

Distinctive Competencies 
are those that characterise the Company and are difficult to form and copy. These are also necessary for the success of the company in the short, mid, and long term. The objective of the Company is to maintain and develop them..

Standard Competencies 
are those that are more easily available outside of the company and that can therefore be outsourced with economic and organisational advantages.

—Currently enabling competencies
are those required by the company to attain success in the short and (to some extent) mid term. The objective of the company is to maintain them and then reconvert them or transfer them out to clients who subsequently develop them as distinctive competencies.