Why do some organizations fail to transfer the value of their capabilities effectively to business objectives?

Innovation allows transforming a problem for a business into a valuable solution, to achieve this, it is required to use a set of capabilities that increase the probability of obtaining successful results, these capabilities can be learned and developed by the leaders and members of an organization. The vast majority of these recognize that it is important to make an effort to develop them and invest in them, however, when it comes time to evaluate if the efforts have been worth it and if they have been transformed into an effective vehicle to create value in the objectives of the business, the vast majority admit that they have not succeeded.

The accelerated pace of social, technological, and economic changes present in the configuration of the world from the phenomenon of globalization and the industrial revolution 4.0 -Globalization 4.0-, lead to complex scenarios related to new norms, standards, policies, and agreements that must be achieved (World Economic Forum, 2019). This represents a challenge for leaders of companies and organizations who must be able to embrace a dynamic attitude, make decisions, take action, and change to overcome present crises and explore uncertain futures.

This is not an easy task for leaders as it is fraught with dilemmas related to the knowledge of problem-solving, value creation, and how to respond effectively to lead change and disruption. As the world and organizations emerge from the recent Covid19 crisis, we must recognize that the new reality urgently demands that the best capabilities should be mobilized, as these are key to the responses and solutions to regenerate the present and create the new future.

To reinforce this insight, findings reported in a recent survey of more than 1,200 leading executives worldwide on the future of work after the pandemic (Mckinsey, 2020) reaffirm that capability building is a business imperative and is critical to help companies execute their future objectives. The report indicates that 78% of the companies surveyed (i) attributes extremely or very important value to capability building, (ii) and only 33% says that their skills training programs always or often have a direct impact on business objectives.

While it is true that these arguments support that capability building is an impetus for leaders who must face the business challenges of today and tomorrow, they also demonstrate that for many organizations, there is a gap between the priorities of learning them and the effectiveness that they achieve. So, why do some organizations fail to transfer the value of their capabilities effectively to business objectives?