What is a capable
enterprise? How does an enterprise achieve 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.
Our approach to generating superior performance and improving
organization effectiveness is through the process of identifying,
aligning, linking, integrating or building enterprise capabilities.
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.
Strategic Effectiveness
Clarity - Does your organization have a true
sense of who it is and where it's going?
Constancy - Is your organization able to
stay the course or does it consistently wander?
Agility - Does your organization have the
ability to shift from one unfolding pattern of actions to
another?
Resiliency - Does your organization have
the speed and quickness with which to deal with and adjust
to uncertainty and change?
Organizational Effectiveness
Directional - Does your organization have
the ability to construct a view of the future state of the
enterprise?
Compositional - Does your organization have the ability to accumulate the resources necessary to accomplish its strategic objectives?
Architectural - Is the enterprise able to
organize and structure itself to adjust to and deal with the
needs and demands of the environment?
Adaptive - Does your organization have the
power to adjust or change in order to cope with new or unforeseen
circumstances?
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?
- What methods do you use
to lower costs or improve performance throughout your organization?
How do employees learn the critical behaviors necessary
to create value?
- How do you assess the overall
health and effectiveness of the enterprise?
We can then help you build a scorecard to
link your measurement system and performance drivers with
your strategy.
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