A Key Weapon of the Strategist: Organizational Capabilities [S2 E10]

An organization’s strategy cannot deliver results without a key ingredient. That key element is also a key weapon of the strategist: Organizational capabilities. Without the right organizational capacities, a strategy is nothing but a pipe dream. This episode delves deeper into organization skills and their role in business strategy.

What are OrganizationalC?

This episode answers a key question for managers: what are organizational abilities and how do they help a strategy? It helps explain what exactly a capability is and what it does. Using some vivid examples of capabilities, it helps you understand the concept in some depth.

Where do Capabilities Reside?

A critical question for all managers is: how to build the needed skills for a strategy? This episode helps answer this question by explaining what do capabilities consist of and where they reside in an organization. It clear a critical myth that organizational capabilities reside in people. This episode explains why when Steve Jobs passed on, Apple continued to excel in innovation.

Strategy and Capabilities

A strategist knows that strategy is not possible without the right capabilities within an organization. She also knows that capabilities take some time to develop. With this knowledge of capacities and deeper relationship between capabilities and strategy, the strategist makes a critical choice: to build a strategic plan based on existing capabilities or build new capabilities?

Key Takeaways

The core takes ways from this week’s episode are as follows:

1. What is an organizational capability?
2. Where do firm capabilities reside?
3. Where do enterprise capabilities come from and how do companies build them?
4. What are some examples of capabilities across organizations?

How to Listen?

This audio is now available as a part of a complete online strategy program called Becoming a Strategist. You can listen to it in the course here