Centre of Excellence – A struggle for Excellence in an ever-changing and dynamic world. Organizations strive to ‘excel’ at the ordinary standards strengthened by the clarity of corporate vision.
Access to expertise is more critical than ever in any organization. “Rising Inflation, Hybrid work model, supply-chain disruptions, labour shortages, and dynamic consumer behaviours are the high-impact events which are on top of mind for every C-level and the CEO. According to market research, “The CEO’s top priorities to achieve by 2025 are growth (overall scaling and expansion), workforce (expert hiring, talent retention, and diversity, equity & inclusion ), technology (digitization, e-commerce and cybersecurity), and corporate (redefining strategy, restructuring, and M&A). Most notably, the ‘workforce’ has become the top priority for CEOs to address.
One of the most impactful ways the CXOs could respond to these challenges is with “innovative human capital management.” Each is directly tied to the pandemic, yet each also threatens to take on a life of its own. Most Executives will look to digital transformation, business model innovations and better cash flow management, more flexible supply chains, and a values-based corporate culture to respond.
Today’s dynamic and most innovative leaders know access to expertise is more important than ever before. Therefore, they must adopt a strategic approach and agile model to talent management and skill-based resourcing with the right attitude as the key factor to survive. A practical approach to accomplish this is by establishing a Centre of Excellence (CoE).
Therefore, A Centre of Excellence (CoE) is a centralized body in an organization under the CEO’s office that works across business units (BUs) or product lines within a BU and has cutting-edge knowledge, expertise and competency based on the overall strategy of the organization and its vision. It comprises specialized and skilled individuals and experts who disseminate knowledge in an organization and share best practices. The literal meaning of a Center of Excellence is – ‘A place where the highest standards are maintained.’ The Software Engineering Institute of Carnegie Mellon University defines a CoE as “A premier organization providing an exceptional product or service in an assigned sphere of expertise and within a specific field of technology, business, or government, consistent with the unique requirements and capabilities of the CoE organization.”
Why is there a need for CoE?
According to history, Albert Einstein wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 2nd of, 1939, to alert him about the possibility that Germans might be building an atomic bomb and Hitler would not be hesitant in resorting to such a weapon. As a result, Roosevelt commissioned a secret research and engineering project for nuclear weapons development, code-named the ‘Manhattan Project.’ A team of experts across the globe came together for this project; on August 6th, 1945, the world witnessed the detonation of the first nuclear bomb in Japan on Hiroshima. The destruction and loss of life were catastrophic, but this incident led to the end of one of the deadliest conflicts of human existence – World War II and established a new world order.
The Allies had the edge over the Germans with their advances in technology. The German research & development was scattered and lacked capacity compared to the scale of the Manhattan Project and other technology development centres that the Allies had set up. What the Allies achieved with the Manhattan Project was the epitome of Excellence and collaboration. More than anything, it was this project that helped them win the race for the bomb.
This significant episode from history redefined Excellence. Even though times have changed, a race is still on. The race for being the best in the industry, the race to be ahead in the game, competition and capturing the new market. But what are companies doing differently to ensure that they emerge as winners? For example, the Manhattan Project brought together experts from around the world. Six thousand scientists, engineers, and physicists from renowned universities and research labs came under one roof and made history. Similarly, companies must understand that expertise is the key to standing out and surpassing competitors. Centres of Excellence are instrumental in accelerating companies’ journey to win customers and showcase a deep domain understanding of the ever-transforming world.
COVID-19 changed the world forever. Anything Comparable in history is World War II, 80 years ago, which had such a vast impact and destruction. Pandemic, a World War III – Close to 10 million people were infected by Corona in 213 countries and close to half a million people dead in the world till June end 2020. The impact of this war is $10 Trillion on the global economy and has left 200 million people in extreme poverty.
The Pandemic war has created a global recession, and the USA – Europe will struggle hard to come out of this. One study indicates it will take the USA 10 years to come back to where it was in March 2020. In a world war, most countries are impacted, axis-allied powers fight, mass destruction, deaths, and pandemic happen, and sorrow and grief surround the world- That is what is happening right now. Besides, the Russia-Ukraine war impedes Post-Pandemic Economic Recovery. Economic activity will remain deeply depressed through 2023.
The global economy continues to be weakened by the war through significant disruptions in food and trade. Fuel price shocks, all of which are contributing to the all-time high inflation and subsequent tightening in global financing conditions. While global prices for oil, coal and gas have been rising since 2021, they skyrocketed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, sending inflation to levels not seen for decades in the region. This unprecedented crisis has implications for Governments, consumers and alike – constraining firm productivity, fiscal affordability and household welfare.
To summarize, in an ever-changing world, the speed at which things are transforming is unimaginable. The evolution of technology is unstoppable, and organizations must be ever-ready. There is an inherent need for companies to differentiate themselves by providing solutions to address problems which is quite complex. The organization need to demonstrate in-depth knowledge and understanding of technology and domain for addressing the evolving customer expectations.
There is no end-to-end or single solution to solve the problems faced by the industry. What becomes critical for organizations is to establish themselves as incubators of innovation who possess the ability to reconstruct and restructure the existing business models and retrofit them. This can be achieved only through establishing the Hybrid Model of Centre of Excellence, which is futuristic and enables the organizations to address the above challenges efficiently and innovating constantly. Learn more about my concept of the futuristic ‘Hybrid CoE’ in my next article.
