Capabilities – the power behind progress
Capabilities – the power behind progress: better capabilities, better progress; lacking capabilities hinder progress. Ask yourself, what capabilities are missing, or can be improved, for a progress journey? (and secondly, through what resource, aligned with Seeker’s desires, can you offer those capabilities?)
Operand Resources
If you’re still competing on operand resources alone – those that need to be acted upon for progress to happen – you will be tomorrow’s commodity players. Though for some Helpers that is a useful position. Editing below here What we’re thinking Operand resources, compared to operant ones, are passive – they must be acted upon for progress to happen. Think of them as the raw materials: tools, goods, content, environments. For decades, they’ve been the core of competitive advantage. Strategy focused on one question: Is your product better than the competition’s? Whether it’s a car, drink, app, or detergent – winning…
Operant Resources
Understanding and designing your business around operant resources – those that act on other resources to make progress – should be the norm for unlocking progress, innovation, and sustainable growth. Though make sure your target Seeker(s) are not looking for more enabling-like propositions and/or the inequitable exchange hurdle is not too high. Writing / editing below here What we’re thinking Not all resources are created equal. Those that act on other resources to make progress – such as the Seeker or Helper’s employees and AI systems (LLMs, agents AI etc) – are known as operant resources and are the source of strategic…
Resources – carriers of capabilities
Stop asking “What product should we build?” and start asking “What capabilities do our customers lack that is limiting their progress?”, and then package those in resources that deliver them best in the context of the Seeker’s progress. What we’re thinking Progress is made when we successfully integrate resources that carry the necessary capabilities. It stalls when we mis-integrate, have the wrong type of resource to Seeker’s expectations, or lack resources carrying the needed capabilities (that is, we lack the needed capabilities). But what are resources? The literature, and our daily linguistic short-cuts, introduce confusion! So let’s be precise: resources:…
Tag: Capabilities
Capabilities – the power behind progress: better capabilities, better progress; lacking capabilities hinder progress. Ask yourself, what capabilities are missing, or can be improved, for a progress journey? (and then, what resource can you create/offer that carry those capabilities that are aligned with Seeker’s vision of progress?).
What we’re thinking
Capabilities – like knowledge, skills, availability, strength etc – are fundamental to making progress.
Resources – like employees, systems, locations, time – carry capabilities. Some resources are operand – need acting upon for progress to be made – others operant – act on other resources in order to make progress.
Different resources, or collections of, can carry the same capability
Why this matters
Progress is made through progress-making activities. These are where capabilities are applied to other capabilities, ie in acts of resource integration.
A lack of capability for a particular progress attempt is the foundational progress hurdle; it is the reason why progress propositions – bundles of supplemental capabilities carried by a proposition specific resource mix – exist.
Capabilities are unevenly distributed across economic actors – this is why progress propositions are offered; Progress Helpers are looking for service exchange to make progress they can’t in return for offering to help a progress seeker make progress they can’t.
Since different resources can carry the same capability, they can be swapped. This, together with the distinction between operant and operand resources, powers innovation in the resource mix of propositions, and is behind why propositions sit at different positions on the enabling-relieving continuum
