Ess 72 CHAPTER 3 STRATEGIC CAPABILITIES ILLUSTRATION 3.1 S| ss ‘The Goddard Space Flight Center Flight Center NASA's Goddard Space Flight Genter man- ages many aspects of the space agency's missions ‘and lays claim to some unique resources. For examole, Its 42-foottall acoustic test chamber can produce ‘Sounds of up to 150 decibels to allow technicians to ‘expose payloads to launch noise. The high bay clean room, which can accommodate two Space Shuttle payloads, circulates 9 million cubic feet of air every ‘minute through its filters to prevent contaminants damaging spacecraft components ~ essential to space missions since cleaning of such contaminants in space Js highly problematic. And its 120-oot-diameterhigh- capacity centrifuge with two 1250-horsepower motors ‘can accelerate a 2.5-tonne payload up to 30s." Royal Opera House, London ‘Tony Hall, Chiet Executive of the Royal Opera House: “World-class” is neither an idle nor boastful claim, In the context of the Royal Opera House the term refers to the quality of our people, the standards of ‘ur productions and the diversity of aur work and initiatives. Unique? Unashamedly so. We shy away ‘rom labels such as “elite”, because of the obvious negative connotations of exclusiveness. But | want people to take away from here the fact that we are elite in the sense that we have the best singers, dancers, directors, designers, orchestra, chorus, backstage crew and administrative staff. We are also among the best in cur ability to reach out to as wide and diverse a community as possible. Infosys. ‘The Indian company Infosys is 2 global leader in informa: tion technology, outsourcing and consulting. Its listed a one of the world’s most reputable companies with close to 150,000 employees worldwide. Infosys has developed from providing business process outsourcing services including call centres and back office IT ‘operations to offering IT infrastructure management, system integration services and IT consulting, Today wos soress2 10 SE cosas 72 Strategic capabilities Executives emphasise different strategic capabilities in different organisations. its ‘infosys 3.0 strategy’ is taking @ further step to provide more advanced IT products and services. ‘The new strategy emphasises innovation and focuses (on highervalue software. Innovation abilities are central {or this, as stated on the website: “The foundation of ‘our innovation capability is our core lab network ~ Infosys Labs - and the new thinking that our team of over 600 researchers brings to the table.’ The new strategy thus requires human resource and training capabilities including the ability to attract, employ, educate and retain new high-quality engineers. As Srikantan Moorthy, Senior Vice President and Group Head expiains: ‘We are currently hiring and developing talent in the areas of cloud, mobility, sustainability and product development. In addition, a key focus is consultative skills. All of these are in line with our Infosys 3.0 strategy. We place significant value on ‘continuous learning and knowledge sharing.’ Infosys CEO S.0. Shibulal explains Infosys capebilty build-up: 'We continue to make focused investments in our organisational capabilities.’ “Our infosys 3.0, ategy requires us to focus on our acquisition strategy to enhance our capabilities..." Accordingly, Infosys, ‘acquired the Swiss management and IT consultants Lodestone in September 2012: ‘A key plan of our Infosys 3.0 strategy is to expand our consulting and systems integration business. This acquisition fits perfectly into that strategy.”* Souees (I) Goddard Space Contr website, (2) Armia Review 2005-4 p. 11, (3) Fnenca Times, 19 Rog 2012; Fama Tne 11 Septonber2012,Mpdtem ncaa con intesys, Mise. hill co poe | Questions 1 Categorise the range of capabiities highlighted | by the executives in terms of section 3.2 and Table 3.1. 2 To what extent and why might these capabilities be the basis of sustained | competitive advantage? ‘3. For an organisation of your choice undertake the same exercise as in questions 1 and 2 above. ovens ross