Getting The Right Capabilities on Board

Like the capabilities required in a world-class sailing team, every business needs the right capabilities if it hopes to beat the competition. From the micro business with a handful of people to the mighty enterprise with hundreds of thousands on the payroll, there's always a mixed bag of characters and capabilities contributing to success and failure.

While a vision and strategic direction is set by the CEO, companies that win and lose do so largely as a result of the capabilities that their people do and don't have.

If the maturity of marketing capabilities is low, bottom line business results could suffer, whereas if maturity is high, profits can soar.

If the maturity of innovation capabilities is low, transformation efforts will typically be somewhat dull, but if maturity is high, there’s a good chance of seeing some truly inspiring transformation.

The same can be said for every other area of the business, which makes the quest for the best people such an important one for HR to get right. And how well this gets done will also be heavily influenced by a company’s hiring capabilities.

Essential Transformation Roles and Capabilities

When it comes to transformation - a journey that many companies have started - the same applies. The challenge some established companies face is that while they typically have a very experienced group of operational managers and leaders on board, most of them have little if any business transformation experience. This isn't their fault, because it wasn't until recent years that most organisations started using the 'transformation' word let alone attempting to do it.

The skills required to transform a business are very different to the skills required to operate a business, which is why we sometimes see very experienced managers and leaders struggle to undertake the transformation roles they now find themselves in. The common assumption that a high-performing manager or leader can become an overnight master of transformation is often the cause of considerable discomfort. After all, when someone is truly excellent at something, it's usually the result of years of practice.

To minimise transformation trauma it’s helpful if organisations adopt a clearly defined approach to transformation (e.g. BTM2) with the key individuals well-equipped with the right capabilities.

While structures differ from one organisation to the next, the generic layers shown below can provide food for thought and help shape transformation, particularly for organisations with upwards of 1,000 staff.

Transformation Layers

 The illustration below shows three levels of a transformation initiative and include:

• Business Transformation Manager
• Programme Managers
• Project Managers

Organisational structure of formal and informal management roles in transformation (Source: Business transformation management methodology)

With the exception of the steering committees, let’s consider the three formal roles shown in the illustration above. The informal roles relate to change, which is another topic for another day.

Business Transformation Managers

Organisations should consider appointing a seasoned Business Transformation Manager who has the ability and authority to manage the overall transformation, and provide advice and guidance to the Executive Steering Committee. Besides managing the vision and the value of the transformation, the Business Transformation Manager needs to be empowered to make strategic decisions in consultation with the Steering Committee. While the Transformation Manager will depend on the Programme Manager(s), ultimately they are all responsible for turning strategy into reality.

One of the most critical decisions for the Business Transformation Manager is selecting the right Programme Managers. The wrong choice can result in some very painful and unnecessary consequences.

Programme Managers

A capable Programme Manager would have at least five to ten years of experience in this field and will have mastered the art of leveraging best practices. These requirements should go hand in hand with the ability to build a bridge between strategy and realisation. The Programme Manager needs to make sure that all activities remain focused on achieving the predefined outcomes which were aligned with the strategic objectives. Governance, management control, resource and financial planning, risk management, and stakeholder engagement are all key components of the Programme Manager’s responsibility. In order to be successful, programme managers need exemplary soft skills as well as commercial and political acumen.

A fatal mistake is sometimes assigning a Project Manager to the role of a Programme Manager. Because the two roles require a very different set of skills.  More on that here.

Project Managers

Project Managers are responsible for the project, the project team, and the products the team is working on, and typically operate cross-functionally. They are the single point of contact for day-to-day management of a project and their focus is often narrower and deeper than that of a Programme Manager’s as they need to focus on detailed specification (of how) and control of activities to produce products.

Most organisations understand the responsibilities of a Project Manager, of which there could be many, depending on the nature and content of the transformation. Typically, a Project Manager will plan, manage, execute, and close a project to deliver the project outputs as agreed with the Programme Manager.

Get your own digital copy

In Summary

These three transformation management layers have distinct functions and the performance at every level will be determined by the capabilities of the people assigned to the three transformation management roles mentioned above.

Compromising on transformational roles and capabilities in a multi-million-dollar transformation is typically more trouble than it’s worth. After all no world class yacht owner in their right mind would dream of embarking on a challenging journey with an inexperienced team on board.