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Dynamic Capability - looking to the future while delivering today

Why this page?

It’s easy to mistake momentum for direction. Many teams, many sites are meeting targets, solving problems. Some excel. But that may not be enough to secure their future. If we’re not actively shaping what comes next, we risk being shaped by it. And too often, the people making tomorrow’s decisions don’t know us, don’t see us, and aren’t waiting for us. That’s why building something akin to Dynamic Capability matters. You won’t be handed extra resources or a bigger team – but regardless, you need a systematic way to influence, to spot and leverage opportunity, to respond to threat, and to become indispensable in your organisation’s strategic direction. We lay out our thinking below. If it strikes a chord – or even if it doesn’t – we’d genuinely welcome your challenge, your experience, your voice.

Below we show how to move from “doing well” to “shaping what comes next”: a roadmap, a Dynamic Capability model, an open-innovation lens to explore approach, a nurtured stakeholder network, and the management system that keeps it alive.

The Roadmap

Roadmaps help organisations navigate turbulence by focusing environmental scanning and aligning action (Phaal, Farrukh & Probert, 2003).

The value of the sample Roadmap - taken from an OSD CDMO and used here as a prompt - lies not in its detail, but in what it makes visible.
It draws a clear line between current and future state; between what the site delivers today and what management hopes it can become. The future organization is not just more capable - it is different. It has strengthened its position through deliberate action: identifying and evaluating opportunity, building and leveraging an external expert network, and influencing decisions that matter. Crucially, it has done all this while continuing to deliver commercially.

What path to follow?

Current reality (Perhaps this might describe your site now): Doing very well; site metrics near top within the corporation; one of five “interchangeable” sites—hence vulnerable to market/technology shifts and corporate strategy changes.

Desired position  (Does this come close to where you might want to go?):  Still doing very well operationally—but now seen as most able to integrate new technologies, a shaper of corporate direction, with an integrated external expert network that makes the site agile and responsive across platforms; essentially without equivalent in the corporation.

Move from Current Reality to Desired Position by creating something "akin" to Dynamic Capability
(Hover over / tap boxes below)

Sense

Sense


• Find technologies, approaches, or market moves that could benefit the site/corporation.
• Spot threats from competitors, emerging therapies/tech, or internal shifts (strategy, “sister-site” competition).

Seize

Seize

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• Select options; evaluate fast; exit early when criteria aren’t met.
• Deliver proof-of-concept and a clear, justified path.
• Win the decision: compelling case, timing, and sponsorship.

Reconfigure / Exploit

Reconfigure / Exploit​

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• Turn insight into corporate advantage (recognised impact, career progression, strategic role for the site).
• Grow demand and capability on site; “in-house” VRIN competencies at the right moment.

Chironi’s* framework for open innovation - with network to the centre - provides a vehicle to explore what needs to happen
(Hover over / tap elipses below)

{ Chiaroni, D., Chiesa, V. and Frattini, F. (2011), The open innovation journey: how firms dynamically implement the emerging innovation management paradigm, Technovation, Vol. 31 34-43, Elsevier.}

Open innovation Process of adoption Managerial levers Unfreeze Moving / implement Freeze / institutionalise Network Organizational structures & systems Evaluation processes Knowledge management & sharing Inside - out Outside - in Sense Seize Reconfigure / Exploit

Sense

•     Create urgency: show that current excellence alone will not secure future relevance; sensing and exploiting opportunity, and influencing strategic direction, are essential to site and career success.
•     System and discipline: hold regular reviews; embed explicit OKRs in processes and performance; foster collaborative, open engagement; ensure visible, reinforced senior management commitment; reward the process, including well‑executed failures.
•     Identify needs: define and address competency and capability gaps; build and leverage internal and external networks to enable delivery.
•     Champion open innovation: deliberately combine external and internal capabilities and initiatives.

Seize

  • Networks: identify and engage internal and external expertise in areas of emerging opportunity or evolving technologies and markets.
    •     Structures: integrate internal and external resources into seamless teams; use simple processes to reconfigure quickly, respond to changing needs, assess opportunities, or deliver proofs of concept; ensure clear pathways to recruit external collaborators with confirmed VRIN competencies into core roles.
    •     Systems & sponsorship: build credibility deliberately and consistently; showcase wins, nurture a coalition that understands and supports your work, and reduce organisational inertia by recognising the needs of approvers.
    •     Evaluation: avoid the twin dangers of killing promising initiatives too soon or delaying closure on weak ones; set clear criteria, assess objectively, make timely decisions, and embed learning throughout.
    •     Knowledge management: capture, share, and reuse; conduct deliberate reviews, accept failure but not poor process, and require explanation where prior experience has not been applied—taking corrective action where systems or behaviours fall short.

Reconfigure / Exploit  

•     Nurture and protect: ensure systems, structures, and measurement for the existing portfolio do not constrain new opportunities. Facilitate quick reconfiguration: set expectations of flexible assignment among employees; integrate external SME networks to rapidly restructure and resource identified opportunities; evolve workspaces to ease reconfiguration, reducing built‑in elements that signal status and risk becoming sources of inertia.
•     Scale and embed: apply best‑in‑class transfer, training, qualification, validation, change control, and data practices.
•     Reinvest: expand proof‑of‑concept capacity and capability across site and partner facilities; add utility to remove the next constraints; bring in networked competencies that shift from uncertain requirement to VRIN.

Open innovation Process of adoption Managerial levers Unfreeze Moving / implement Freeze / institutionalise Network Organizational structures & systems Evaluation processes Knowledge management & sharing Inside - out Outside - in Sense Seize Reconfigure / Exploit
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Let's explore the stakeholder map - some of the groups that might be involved, what they bring, what motivates them and how you might benefit from their engagement
(Hover over / tap stakeholder nodes / circles below)

anchorStakeCards
Corporate management & strategy Academic / research institutions Corporate patient facing, BD & Dev. groups Other Corporate manufacturing & development sites Industry groups (own & related) Equipment, controls and sensor supply + development (Complimentary) Service providers Consultants – organizations and independent experts Site Leadership & Tech Group

Corporate Management & Strategy
(Win sponsorship. Shape direction. Unlock scale.)

  • The people you want to influence, to recognize your ability, support your initiatives and become your advocate.

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  • The people that set direction, sponsor chosen projects and strategies, choose winning sites and unlock budgets.

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  • Understand their priorities, their direction and preferences - where you can have effective meaningful impact and where you believe an alternate approach warranted.

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  • Be deliberate - use project & operational success, quarterly business reviews; strategy offsites; portfolio forums to deliberately build your profile and as springboards to create an internal network / a supportive coalition.

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  • Develop a clear understanding of what is needed - what level of proof / justification, what communication - to gain approval.

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The management system that makes this stick

  • People and time. Select managers and senior technical leads with appetite for looking ahead. Give them dual objectives  - operations and capability building  -  and protect 10–15% of their time.

  • Senior Management tone and direction. Reviews run at a defined cadence. Leaders show up and engage consistently in a way that stresses necessity and importance of this strategic endeavor. 

  • Define the current reality and the desired position, agree how progress will be judged, track it at every review, and assign clear corrective actions where expectations are not met.

  • Emphasize process. Many initiatives will not run the course. Value well-framed, well-executed exploration. Applaud evidence-based stop or continue decisions made at the right points. Celebrate success.

  • Leverage the outside. Teams and individuals are expected to identify, create, and engage a stakeholder network -  academia, suppliers, services, SMEs, and sister sites. Where justified, provide funding and access to additional resources to explore opportunities.

  • Recognize and share learning. Maintain a searchable log of signals, trials, decisions, and assets so learning is captured and used.

Invitation to challenge & collaborate
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  • What do you think?  

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  • What’s your experience? Have you tried to influence your site’s direction - how did you engage others, build support, and what happened?

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  • How have you used the outside? Have you tapped external expertise or built a partner network - what worked, what didn’t, what did you learn?

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  • Does this resonate? Where are we missing something - and is there a way we could help right now?​

We'd love to hear from you - please get in touch!

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