Capabilities are the power behind progress: better capabilities, better progress; whereas missing capabilities hinders progress. What capabilities are missing, or can be improved, in your Seeker’s progress attempts?
What we’re thinking
We apply capabilities to power progress.
They might be skills or knowledge, or physical attributes such as strength, abstract attributes such as availability, or those from nature like power, etc. In an organisation, we might talk of marketing, R&D, or customer service capabilities.
The better the capabilities you can draw on, the better progress you should be able to make.
However, your progress is likely hindered if you lack one or more of the capabilities needed. This is the lack of capability progress hurdle…and the opportunity for Progress Helpers (who offer supplementary capabilities as progress propositions)
Capabilities are carried by resources – people, goods, systems, departments (groups of people, systems), etc – and we apply them through an act of resource integration.
Creating below here
What are capabilities?
Capabilities power progress.
When they are successfully applied the result is progress – a move towards a Seeker’s progress sought. Where they are lacking, a Seeker’s progress journey is likely hindered.
For example we might apply our skills and knowledge to solve a quantum computing problem, or our strength to reposition a piece of furniture. An organisation might leverage their R&D/innovation capability to discover new ways of helping a Seeker make better progress.
Defining Capabilities
However, capability, as a concept, is somewhat abstract to define.
The Oxford dictionary defines it as “the ability to do something”. Academic literature focusses more on capabilities within a firm, where capabilities are the resources or abilities for achieving strategic goals (see “what does the literature say” section). Often the boundary between resource and capability is blurred.
For the progress economy, our definition should naturally reflect a progress-first nature; and I want to distinguish between capability and resource (since we can swap resources that offer the same capability). Our definition is therefore:
capability: a quality of a resource used in making progress
When thinking of making progress our question should be first: what capabilities are needed? Second should be what resources should carry those capabilities?
Relationship to resource
What does the literature say?
| Lens | Definition highlights |
|---|---|
| Resource-based view (RBV) | an organisationally embedded, non-transferable resource developed through processes and routines that enable the firm to deploy other resources effectively for strategic advantage. It is distinct from resources – which can be bought or copied – as capabilities are firm-specific and hard to imitate. |
| Dynamic Capabilities | higher-order organisational abilities that enable firms to sense opportunities, seize them, and transform resources, competences, and structures to adapt in rapidly changing environments. They are essential for sustaining competitive advantage. |
| Enterprise Architecture | what an organisation must be able to do to achieve strategic goals. It describes what the firm does—not how it does it (that’s process)—and differs from functions (how work is structured) or services (value delivered). |
| Capability Management | a collectively embedded, action-oriented capacity – a reliable pattern of problem‑solving routines developed through experience. These capabilities are socially embedded, manifest in shared routines or cognitive frames, and evolve over time. |
Seekers capabilities
We naturally think of seekers as possessing resources (capabilities) such as skills and knowledge. Alves, Ferriera and Fernandes (2016) point to a broader range, including:
- physical – include sensory-motor endowment, energy, emotions and strength.
- social – made up of both personal and cultural relationships
- cultural – include specialised knowledge and skills, life expectancy and historic imagination
Alves, Ferriera and Fernandes (2016) “Customer’s operant resources effects on co-creation activities” referencing Arnould, Price and Mashe () “Towards a cultural resource-based theory of the customer”
The following is then a good summary guide:
- Skills and knowledge
- physical, eg strength, speed etc
- social, eg personal and cultural relationships
- cultural, eg specialised knowledge and skills, historic imagination, specialised ways
- abstract, such as availability, learning, innovative capability, etc.
Helper’s capabilities
Within an organisation we talk about its capabilities, for example, R&D, marketing, customer service etc. but there’s also capabilities such as learning, innovativeness etc.
Hunt (2004), sees a helpers’ operant resources falling into the following categories:
- Human resources
- Organizational resources
- Informational resources
- Relational resources
Hunt, S. (2004) “On the service-centered dominant logic of marketing”
Where human resources refers to the skills and knowledge that individual employees posses (rather than a HR function)
The better the capabilities available for a progress attempt, the better progress is expected to be made. Conversely, if the Seeker is lacking needed capabilities, then progress is expected to be impacted. We say the Seeker has a higher lack of capability progress hurdle.
Gaining capabilities
Seekers may attempt to
HOW DO SEEKERS ACQUIRE OPERANT RESOURCES
Some capabilities seekers are born with but the majority they acquire in several ways:
- observation/imitation: by observing others making progress attempts
- experience: hands-on involvement in their own progress attempts
- experimentation/innovation: using resources available to them, or combining them, in new ways.
- education and training: taking formal education and training programs to acquire specific capabilities (eg skills and knowledge from a teacher, or strength from weight training)
Let’s not forget that seekers will certainly acquire operant resources via these ways from outside your industry/market. The implication being you should look to see what seekers have when building your propositions. I often point to use of QR codes as an example of this. Originally from the auto industry, they are now used, and expected to be used by seekers, in many different industry/market use cases.
But capabilities do not live in isolation.
Capabilities are carried by resources
Capabilities are carried by resources. By that I mean they are the properties of the tangible and intangible items available to a Seeker.
Peters et al. (2014) bring us along this journey:
…no tangible or intangible item represents a resource in its own right; rather a resource is a “property of things…”. In this sense, a resource is a carrier of capabilities
Peters L.D., Löbler, H., Brodie R. and Briedbach, C. (2014) “Theorizing about resource integration though S-D Logic”
The Seeker themselves is a resource that carries skills and knowledge. They also have physical capabilities, strength. speed etc that might be relevant for a progress attempt. They also carry availability – it’s not uncommon for a Seeker to not have the time to be able to make a progress attempt themselves.
Similarly the Helper is a resource the Seeker can engage. Though in practice we usually look at the six types of resources a Helper may include in their proposition’s resource mix: employees, systems, goods, physical resources, data, and locations. For those interested, we look at Artificial intelligence either as an employee or system depending on context.
Powerfully, two resources that carry the same capability can be swapped for each other. This is a source of innovation we’ll explore more when we discuss resources.
Such a concept extends to organisations. A company’s R&D capability is carried by resources: perhaps a dedicated R&D department, or individuals distributed across the organisation. We do need to be careful when discussing an organisation’s capabilities not to confuse capabilities with resources (eg departments). These capabilities are usually carried by employees or systems resources.
Applying capabilities
Capabilities need to be applied to make progress.
You apply your learning capability to learn how to play a guitar…and then apply the skills you have developed to play music on that guitar. An organisation applies its marketing and innovation capabilities to evolve its progress proposition to help a Seeker make better progress.
This application happens in resource integrations, often following a defined set of progress-making activities.
Let’s progress together through discussion…