This is the first part of a two-part article. It reviews the most important requirements business capability maps must meet to be truly useful for many important purposes. It also defines principles that must be followed to create maps that meet these requirements. Part 2 will provide many examples of true business capabilities and of things that aren’t.
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A strategic management system (SMS) is important for the agility and longterm success of any organization. It is a comprehensive and integrated set of activities and mechanisms that links strategy formulation and planning with operational execution1 and acts as the foundation for all key decisions. Its importance is all the more critical in today’s highly competitive and disruptive environment, where 50 to 90 percent of strategic initiatives fail2 and where the life expectancy of organizations is in a serious decline. Yet, despite all that has been learned since the launch of the business strategy revolution in the 1960s, most organizations are still having difficulties building and perfecting such a system. The objective of this article is to provide guidance to help organizations in this effort so they can map an agile future.
To remain competitive in today’s marketplace, organizations have no choice but to transform themselves relentlessly, and at a faster and faster pace. However, leading organizational transformations and reaping the expected benefits is not easy. Indeed, recent surveys show that between 50% and 90% of executives are dissatisfied with their organization’s ability to transform themselves. This article proposes a holistic framework incorporating an ensemble of both proven (e.g., strategic planning) and leading-edge (e.g., business architecture approach) practices to address this important problem. This framework is designed to tackle the 12 most common root causes of the difficulties organizations face during their transformations.