Let’s Talk About Your Capabilities Roadmap

A capabilities roadmap outlines the initiatives, dependencies, sequencing, investment, resources, etc. required to deliver meaningful value in solving a company’s biggest challenges and achieving business objectives.

A company’s overall strategy and high-level objectives may define revenue growth, margin optimization, inventory effectiveness, or just the desire to be at the forefront of innovation. However, a capabilities roadmap clarifies what, when, and how key improvements will support the strategy. The roadmap also confirms that the strategy is realistic and right-sized.

It is important to realize that not all strategic goals require a technology component. Some can be accomplished through a more simplified and clarified process that changes the way the organization thinks and works together. The overall point of the roadmap is to have a cohesive plan that has company leadership alignment.

Despite the media attention and executive focus on all things unified commerce, seamless customer experiences, inventory transparency, globalization, integrated business planning, and of course artificial intelligence, we still see many retailers continuing to operate in silos. Not planning and operating cross-functionally severely hampers most of those efforts.

Further, even with innovative technologies that enable much better standardization, collaboration, analytical capabilities, and the panacea of ‘one version of the truth’ (with respect to data), too many brands are still winging it, being reactive—or simply hopeful. These reactions typically are the result of not having a clear vision of how the many corporate initiatives must be coordinated, prioritized, and executed to achieve a company’s desired capabilities.

Defining a capabilities roadmap that considers all elements of a company’s business, inclusive of processes, technology, and organizational impacts ensures that priorities and dependencies across all functional areas are fully considered.

A key tenet of a roadmap and the expected benefits is that business value does not appear magically as soon as a new capability is deployed. While we often define a set of ‘quick wins’—or short-term activities in the capabilities roadmap that will deliver results within the first 3 to 4 months—value realization takes time. It also takes focused attention on training, learning, and data cleansing, as well as making tweaks (and sometimes major adjustments) to existing systems or processes.

Further, engaging the impacted organizations from the very beginning of your roadmap journey with thorough and honest communications and executing a tailored organizational change management plan is key to not only reaching the target but ensuring adoption and achieving sustainable results. This involves defining and then sharing a common vision throughout the company and enabling the team to not just come along for the ride but even help navigate the course at times.

Although numerous companies focus on technology in their current roadmaps, the most impactful strategy for crafting a capabilities roadmap involves examining the comprehensive environment within which a retailer or consumer goods company functions. This includes:

• Business process design work
• Organization and role definition
• System configuration changes or development
• Selection of new technology

There is a cliché that says, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” While many retailers may have a solid grasp on their future business objectives (where they want to go), it is paramount to also have a well-defined and realistic approach to achieving these goals (or how to get there).

We would love the opportunity to work with you in crafting a capabilities roadmap that solves your biggest challenges and drives your organization towards operational excellence.