Building Capabilities -- What is a capability? How does an enterprise build high levels of capability?

Charles Fine, Professor of Operations Management at MIT, suggests that "In the natural world, species evolve - that is, they change to meet new challenges - or they die. The same genetic imperative operates in business." Prof. Fine says that, "...all competitive advantage is temporary and the faster the clockspeed, the more temporary the advantage."

His principle of "Clockspeed" suggests that different industries evolve at different rates of speed and that industry clockspeeds vary depending upon their rates of learning. Thus, in this age of temporary advantage, the ultimate competency is the ability to determine which capabilities are going to be high-value-added and which will not. The "...greatest rewards will go to the companies that can anticipate, time after time, which capabilities are worth investing in and which should be outsourced; which should be cultivated and which should be discarded."

If one accepts the proposition, and we do, that all advantage is temporary, then to survive and evolve as a successful business, the planning processes and strategic focus of the enterprise should be on constantly anticipating, evaluating, and evolving those capabilities and chains of capabilities that are necessary to sustain competitive advantage.

What is a "Capable Enterprise?" A "capable enterprise" is one that achieves consistently superior performance; one that consistently delivers superior value to its customers, innovates more rapidly, is difficult to imitate, and is more profitable. A capable enterprise is one that has developed and sustained a few vital capabilities. A capable enterprise is one that believes that its competitive success depends on being the best at what it does. Capabilities are usually characterized as touching all parts of the enterprise - as with 3M's coating and bonding capabilities or Wal-Mart's logistics.

What are "Capabilities?" Capabilities are "the things you do best." They are the collective abilities of the organization to accomplish strategic objectives; the know-how that enables an organization to perform; the unique skills and processes needed to congruently fill the gap between intention and outcome. They represent an enterprise's repeatable patterns of action; its ability to apply knowledge to the use of resources in pursuit of its goals. They enable an enterprise to perform optimally in activities that typically require people, processes, and technology.

Successful implementation of strategy at each level in the value system requires corresponding capabilities. Identification and diagnosis of the required capabilities provides a linkage between strategy and shaping the organization for success.

Using an in-depth assessment process, we help you look at many areas of the business to determine where improvements need to be made in order to generate superior performance. We then help you select the appropriate intervention point and apply relevant tools and methods to change systems, practices, and processes that lead to your desired outcomes.

We deal with issues such as:What is your mission? What is your governing objective? How are you structured to achieve your mission? What is your "strategic style?" What is your planning model? What processes do you use to develop strategy? How do you implement or deploy strategy? How do you translate strategy into action at all levels of the enterprise? How do you determine the strategic capabilities necessary to achieve strategy? How do you shape the organization to build those capabilities? 
How do you attract, select, develop, motivate, and retain your high performing employees?
How do you help your employees learn the skills essential to achieving or sustaining competitive advantage; and, how do you provide feedback to and evaluate performance? 
We can then help you build a scorecard to link your measurement system and performance drivers with your strategy.

For more information, please email us at info@bianetics.com or

call us at 210-408-2885 or 888-225-6201