Capability Modeling Guidelines | How to use Capabilities to Align Investments with Purpose
Indicate Where to Focus
A capability focus map is a visualisation of an organisation’s capabilities, indicating the level of attention required for each. It helps you to identify capabilities that are critical for strategic goals and are underperforming, and pinpoints areas where the enterprise lacks a necessary capability or where an existing one is not mature enough. Investments can then be targeted to improve those capabilities. Using colour-coded maps that represent where to focus, stakeholders can quickly identify areas that require further attention and investment. This method supports an objective, data-driven approach to capability assessment, planning, and resource allocation. Co-creating capability focus maps with a broad range of participants also fosters stronger alignment between investment decisions and an agreed-upon strategy.
How to Calculate Where to Focus
Two factors guide where to focus: how well your capabilities perform today compared to peers (the benchmark), and how important each capability is to achieving your vision, meaning how much it contributes to what makes your organisation “distinctive”.
Distinctive capabilities are those that set you apart. The goal is to perform these among the best in your peer group, at a reasonable cost, not necessarily the lowest. Invest in these when their performance is below peers, but their contribution to your distinctiveness is high.
Support and non-distinctive operational capabilities are necessary to enable your distinctive capabilities. These should perform at or above industry average at a competitive cost. Invest in them when performance is below industry standard.
-> Spreadsheet to calculate the "focus" indicator
Practical Tips
Adapt the calculation method with your co-creators.
Start with the simplest possible “focus = distinctiveness x lack of performance” calculation method. Make it more sophisticated when it helps your co-creators to better align and focus.
Assign clear accountabilities
Assign ownership for the performance of each capability to specific departments or leaders.
Example:Focus map of Intersection Railways based on as-is benchmark and distinctiveness assessment:
