Why require Capability Building in Today’s Business

When it comes to working towards growth and profitability in business, most companies miss the mark of building ‘capabilities’ at the start.

Most organizations, at the start, look forward or plan to energising and captivating workforce and productivity with their own set of ideas and strategies. They often remain a promise in word or a reality merely on papers.

When a company goes through troubled times; specially at a time,  when its shares fall, when its productivity declines, when its profitability dips,  and finally its organizational morale and goals plummet, that  is where the management wakes up to realise that something has seriously gone wrong.

Often the quick fix solution  is ‘downsize and an organizational overhaul.’ These are mere cosmetic modulations. But do they yield any result? Short term Yes, but definitely not on a long term.  Such practises drain management energies.

Capability building, on the other hand, when employed at the very start of any business or organizational building, does not just help the ease of doing business, but enables long term growth and sustainability, especially in adverse moments.

For the reason, Capability building becomes the firewall of the company.

Defining Capability Building

As per Mckinsey, “Capability Building is a highly scalable approach that enables organizations to rapidly identify, build, and sustain the targeted capabilities needed to continuously improve performance and deliver impact”. It does not merely propel growth  on a sustainable manner but address all kinds of capability gaps in the process.

Capability Building shapes and stabilizes growth

The first question many business heads  ask is “how do I unleash my business performance and end up profitable?” I tell them, “first unleash your  organizational potential within, then you may think of unleashing business performance”

Capability begins with the human inside.  One should never forget that it all begins with building up of human capabilities to start with. The question is how do I go about it?

The importance meted out to building a strong business plan  at the start of business that caters to running production or service, is never given to building human capability.

In future of work, when the paradoxical element is  more apparent and persuasive technology increasingly prevalent, the human side of equations may not match up, if human  and organisational capability is not built from the start.

It is highly crucial that humans as customers, humans as consumers, humans as employees, humans as engines of growth and innovation, humans as producers, humans as end users, humans as collaborators, humans as leaders and stakeholders need to equate to the world of technological change and growth. That is possible only with capability building.

Capability building  bridges this gap by creating new values and systems to enhance growth at the start, reducing any kind of ambiguity from the start of any venture.

Capability building powers transformation

‘Business as usual’  become modus operandi for many companies, as they turn a blind eye towards capability building in all the respective departments of their business.

What does this lead to? In moments of adversities, most companies’ structurally built-business verticals fall like pack of cards with no room for redemption at times.

There is a requirement for constant renovation, innovation and rejuvenation in all that a business does, that is what leads to transformation. Capability building simply powers such a thrust.  

It is true that many transformative efforts have failed to succeed, when they are purely employed for the sake of transformation and change. Not all transformational or customized inbuilt programs/projects succeed in organizations, the reasons vary from human to political.

But true capability building programs cannot fail, but transform.  Because transformation is their very nature.

When we build our resources on capabilities, we don’t merely intend to transform, but the very act of building capabilities in all sectors lead to transformation that seldom fail. There lies the difference.

In this world of complexity, many companies that have failed to invest in capability development, have failed miserably.  Capability building enables the process of change and growth.

Capability building breeds sustainability

The virtual world of business today have brought profound changes to company’s strategy, business model, organization, culture, people and processes. All these were incorporated to bring an element of sustainability in performance.  Has that sustainability been really achieved?

What do we do? We constantly juggle between our ideas to fit into the virtual world of change. At the end, we realize that  we neither reach the milestones smoothly nor build sustainability on a longer run.

Seldom do we realize that our past best-practises don’t fit into our times. The whirlwind of  customer expectations and behaviours, global market changes, emergence of new technologies, and above all investors’ expectations require a model called capability building that breeds sustainability in companies and organizations.

The future lies in capability building.

Capability is the “ingrained ability to do something well in a way that improves business performance in a sustained manner”.

One of the main reasons why most companies gradually step or quickly fade into the oblivion is that they either think short term or fail to recognize the importance of  target capabilities, and systematically incorporate them for greater sustainability and transformation.

Capabilities are going to be competitive differentiators in growing or emerging companies. No company can turn a blind eye to building capability in their organization, as they are vital parameter in the future work. 

Capability building will be serious contender for companies that are serious about their future in the world of business.

Elias Moses is a Senior Business Strategist, Consultant, Researcher, Corporate and Leadership Trainer, Orator, Columnist and an Entrepreneur. He is  the Founder and Managing Director of  a growing reality firm in south India. He is also the founder of Managing Next, an Online portal for knowledge share and consulting.

 The author can be contacted@ 

email: elias@managingnext.in,  linkedin:  www.linkedin.com/in/eliasmoses