Recently, there is an interesting conversation that makes me realise of a deep misconception of technical capabilities within organisations. This leads me to think why organisations choose to outsource with the constant view that “grass is greener on the other side”. On the other hand, I am a firm believer to grow and develop in-house “unrealised” capabilities. This belief will be accelerated by the change in paradigm of digital transformation.
Unrealised Capabilities
There is always a misunderstanding that capabilities must be acquired inorganically for all new technologies. This thought may be true in the old days where knowledge and information are shared via books and paper notes. Now, capabilities are often unrealised and untapped like a oil in deep reserve. Management and human resource (HR) must look beyond current skillset to uncover and develop new ones.
Agile Learning
Another key shift is adoption of Agile to acquired the ability to learn. With Agile learning, you can learn rapidly through practical implementation from your domain knowledge. The investment cost to mine these untapped resources will give you a a much higher returns than acquiring time and materials resources.
The mindset must first be change of management to focus inwards to develop rather than acquisition of “new capabilities”. After all, the best returns of investing in capabilities comes from internal rather than external. Digital transformation goes beyond technology and also involves transformation of you gain new capabilities.
Danny Kwok 