The Capability Architects
approach to capability management is simple, direct and ensures
that we practice what we preach.
We have used our in-depth
business awareness and technical experience to develop the most
sophisticated models of capability and capability management available anywhere.
We have synthesised an
immense volume of business, delivery and Client management
experience and research into a powerful, rigorous yet
sensitive process for conducting rapid, insightful and
cost-effective evaluations of your existing capabilities.
We have combined our many years
of experience in a great variety of countries, industries,
organisations and situations into a delivery methodology
that addresses every level of change, from the radical
demands of the market to the human and cultural issues on
which so many change programmes falter.
This approach, development over
many years, has allowed us to produced the most sophisticated
models of capability now available. These are summarised below.
The Capability Architects model of individual capabilities is the most sophisticated model
available today. It ensures that your capability realises all
your stakeholders' expectations.
Covering all
aspects of your capabilities, our rigorous yet highly flexible and
sensitive core model ensures that your business strikes exactly the
right balance between your people's individual expertise and imagination
and will structured strategies, systems, processes and facilities.
Even the best developed capability will decay in the absence of
effective management systems, processes and strategies for maintaining
their alignment with your business, markets and goals.
The
Capability Architects model of the
corporate capability management process is far broader than the
normal run of innovation or knowledge management solutions. It
incorporates all dimensions of capability management, from the original
creation of marketable products and services to their implementation through
methods, training, tools and techniques, their delivery to Clients and
their impact on calculations of intellectual capital and equity value.
A typical Capability
Architects assignment has four stages:
We start by reviewing
your business and management strategy to identify the key areas of
capability, your perceived capability needs and the major goals for
improvement.
We then conduct an initial assessment and
evaluation of your current capability strategy, goals, needs,
context and position. This is often highly revealing, and often
leads to a substantial revision of the original goals and
objectives.
We next jointly
plan, resource and implement a series of typically simple
and brief projects to create the optimum capability targets,
culture and processes for your organisation. We also focus
on building enduring capability management structures,
broadly based on our core
Capability Architectsmodels
but always adapted to your unique business, organisation, context,
and so on.
Finally, we provide
arms-length support and supervision, including mentoring and
coaching, for as long as this continues to add value. This is crucial to internalising real capability
development expertise. However, we adopt a completely
flexible position on this, and will ensure that you receive
the service you expect and really need.
Building an effective generally depends on a combination
of discrete improvement projects, informal initiatives to raise
awareness of the importance and value of capability management, and
cultural and ecological changes (involving organisational design,
training, reward systems, and so on) to ensure that the disciplines of
effective capability management are full internalised.
Evaluations rely on building and sustaining a completely
open, honest and creative relationship between your senior management,
your personnel and the evaluation team. Broadly speaking this involves
clear contributions from each side:
We provide
You provide
Evaluation design:
Objectives
Requirements
Standards
Process
Evaluation planning
Expertise:
Industry, functional, technical
Best Practice
Other organisations
Interviewing
Workshop facilitation
Data analysis
Capability Assessment Report
Board/business unit sponsorship of
the assessment and ownership its results
Access to a
representative sample of relevant operations
Access to
responsible individuals able to explain current
practice:
Business stakeholders
Capability management
Line managers
Support personnel
Offices
Commitment to provide data and
access in an timely manner
Our experience is that the initial evaluation typically
requires 1 full time consultant for about 1-3 weeks, depending
on the agreed scope. This normally includes interviews
and observations of representative areas of work, typically of 2-4 hours each, during which it is
important to be assisted by the local manager and one or two other,
non-managerial staff. In our experience this process is not highly
disruptive, and can be very illuminating for the individuals involved.
Later phases of the programme naturally depend on the
conclusions of the original evaluation. The resources required are
agreed as part of the post-evaluation planning process.
We are happy to work in joint teams to ensure that your
own personnel are completely familiar with the issues we raise,
the methods we use, the evidence we gather and the solutions we deliver. As a result you
will quickly acquire a good deal of the skills and experience needed to
avoid repeating any present problems in future. Although we are keen to
build on-going relationships with our Clients, we would be very
disappointed if we were asked to do the same thing twice!
