- The benefits of moving
to a capability-based operating model are undeniable.
They include speed, as the world of digital
is moving faster than companies can adapt.
Customer expectations, as customers expect you
to iterate and design based on their feedback.
Improve precesses, as they end up being developed
around organizational silos
and a consistent customer experience
and speed to market suffer.
Organizational advantages, as companies must reexamine
how they holistically approach digital and omnichannel
by organizing cross-functional teams
around capabilities, such as repeat delivery
versus marketing, operations, IT, et cetera.
Decision rights, as ownership of digital
has become universally messy and without intentional design
the lack of clear decision rights or collaboration forums
will undermine the ability to deliver effectively.
Governance, as road maps must collapse barriers,
expose dependencies, and renew the focus of efforts
on differentiating the employee, partner,
and/or customer experience.
The path to adopting this model
is not necessarily straightforward.
The typical path goes something like this:
Typically, teams deliver work in projects,
but then realize that they lose a lot
of subject matter expertise when they assemble
and disassemble teams constantly.
Frankly, a lot's lost, also,
when not building out a solution holistically
with the end state in mind.
If you strive to adopt capability teams,
point out these disadvantages in the current way of working.
Next, the path is often to establish one
or multiple digital centers of excellence
to deliver all things digital.
In this model, groups of shared resources
simply fulfill work for the people with the most money
or strongest influence.
But they're not necessarily
in a position to think strategically,
because they are positioned as executors.
The first spark of capability teams
typically starts in customer-facing functions
like sales, marketing, or eCommerce.
This is due to the pressure to deliver something fast
for customers.
These functions will form as agile scrum teams
for the first time bringing together business people
and IT people in a dedicated team to deliver value.
They realize that investing in something
like a website isn't a one-time event.
But the digital commerce capability is something
that will require investment in resources forever.
The limit is that there are still many other functions
that these groups depend on.
And because those groups are still operating
as project-based organizations,
realizing truly significant change is difficult.
This realization is a powerful case
for the transition to capability teams.
Rather than organize work
as projects and separate functions,
structure teams that are responsible
for end-to-end business process design,
policy definition, technology development,
change management, marketing, and ongoing support.
Identify ways for teams
that are closer to the customer or end user
to take advantage of common platforms, architectures,
and standards so they're not completely siloed.
But you set up those teams to be as empowered as possible
to own their own destiny in pursuing the business outcomes
they're chartered with.
Some companies are able to jump directly
from project-based work to a capability model.
So this is not necessarily a linear journey.
But it requires the greatest organizational change.
You have to fundamentally rethink
how decision rights change to allow work to get completed
across functional silos.
No matter where you might be on this journey,
remain steadfast as a greater level of speed and value
is on the other end of this journey.