Part Two of the blog series, click here for a link to Part One

Step 1: Defining the Core Capabilities

As noted in the last entry, an organization’s core capability can be viewed as those things an organization does particularly well to drive meaningful business results. Examples can range from talent management, lean manufacturing, customer care, research or product design. For pharmaceuticals, some specific examples could be pipeline management, study design, regulatory management including submissions, responses, and related matters, as well as drug discovery.

If you do not already have an organizational capability map, you need to begin by meeting with each business area. From those discussions, you can collaboratively develop a capabilities list for that area.

That list will need to be filtered and sorted into priority order. The output from this, as well as discussions with other areas, will then need to be consolidated into a single list. One example for a fictional manufacturer might look as follows:

For the strategic capabilities, additional detail is required. For the example above, a detail for Manufacturing might appear as follows:

Step 2: Assessing the Gap

At this point, we need to map the capabilities, in this case for Manufacturing to the IT systems which provide enablement. Gaps are also identified. A simplified view of this mapping looks as follows:

At the conclusion of this step, you should have a list of the capabilities for each (key) business area and any associated gaps.  This information will be critical as we move into the next steps of the process.

Although it is important to prioritize at each phase, the most important prioritization occurs during the consolidation rollout for the whole organization. Many factors may drive that process and will be discussed in the next entry.

In the next entry, we will discuss Steps 3 and 4: the process of consolidation and prioritization across the organization.

If you would like to set up a conversation with Clint, please reach out.

By Clint Gilliam, Virtual CIO, GreenPages Technology Solutions