Take Away: Excellent configuration and the proactive maintenance
of resources are critical to an organization’s capabilities and are foundational
components of any sustainably coherent enterprise.
Aligning strategy, a unique combination of core
capabilities, and organizational resources creates a sustainable advantage known
as coherence. While this positions an
organization attractively in the marketplace, a breakdown of organizational
resources’ quality or alignment will disrupt the value chain. The configuration
of organizational resources via their allocation, documentation and investment,
and maintaining quality by training and establishing metrics, facilitate a
company’s ability to continuously execute at a high level.
Configuring Resources
As the business environment changes and new technologies
emerge, skill-sets and inputs required to deliver a core capability change. Having the right allocation, of talent (or of
physical resources) is critical to maintaining excellence. This may be accomplished through retraining
or planning to make hires as is applicable to the environment. Over time, as processes change, rigorous documentation,
and a schema covering how and when documenting these processes should occur are
important to ensure a level of quality, as well as to support new hire’s ramp
up. There also will be times when a necessary
change in configuration may require a capital investment, or that aging
hardware needs to be replaced. Companies
should remain hyper focused on keeping organizational resources that are inputs
to core capabilities in top condition and be proactive about investing in them
where appropriate.
Maintaining Resources
A key input to maintaining a core capability is keeping skills
and knowledge at a sufficient level. While
on the job training remains the number one way organizations impart key
information to employees, in-person training, coaching, online or in person
courses, and experiential learning with simulations or models represent other options
for learning opportunities [1]. Mckinsey
has found that companies using all of the methods above also have the best
results in building and maintaining capabilities.
[1]
A program with a combined front, where both Human Resources
and Department Managers support learning that reinforce capabilities is superior
to placing the ownership of these programs in one or the other. Finally, concrete metrics around not only
training, but around how well capabilities’ targets are being achieved are important. As some core capabilities can be difficult to
quantify, the creation of metrics may be similarly so. Thoughtful care in their creation, and diligence
in their collection and review are important to determine whether skill levels
are appropriate, and whether capabilities are being executed at the level
management perceives them to be.
Aligning resources, capabilities, and the strategy of an organization
are requisite to achieving coherence, and the benefits it supplies. Concrete methods, and dedicated attention to
the configuration and the maintenance of an organization’s resources are
perhaps less visible to the customer, but no less important when it comes to sustaining
an advantageous position in the market.
[1] McKinsey, https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/building-capabilities-for-performance
[2] Harvard Business Review, https://hbr.org/2017/02/how-aligned-is-your-organization
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