CapFeather exists to help your organisation find new and sustainable opportunities by looking beyond the immediate horizon.

Our guiding principle is to add value to our world. To do this, CapFeather partners with organisations to deliver revenue, value and impact by improving or innovating the customer experience. We do this at a strategic and operational level. We don’t work with organisations we don’t believe we can help. The CapFeather team are an intellectual powerhouse that is invested in success for our clients and their customers. Our goal is to make a difference.

We add value beyond our clients and their customers by supporting global organisations through our Lean CX Education Scholarships.

Ambidexterity is at the core of what we do.

Right now, organisations are re-calibrating to the new economy. People inside the business seek impact. The business is mature. The team is not used to fast, adaptive innovation. There may be a rival that is making strategic moves.

Normally, the go-to play to gain market share is an acquisition, however this strategy can often be a false prophet. The data consistently shows that between 70-90% of mergers and acquisitions fail [1]. This means CEOs have a 10-30% chance to get it right, at a cost of millions. According to research by PwC of over 2500 companies, CEO tenures are shorter and more brutal. Turnover is at an all time high of 17.5% [2]. Strong financial performance in a fast changing environment is imperative.

In this position, a validated strategic growth option without a risk laden capital investment is the holy grail. For the CEO, there are two problems with achieving this. Firstly, there is often a lack of spare capacity to do anything outside of the current business model. Secondly, it is difficult for the current executive team who have been tasked with operating the business to then turn their hand to innovation.

Shareholders, customers and suppliers are watching revenue plummet, EPS dive, dividends evaporate, and they already know that profits, if there are any, will be hard to come by. Such generational challenges are devastating and will have far-reaching, long term resonance. Still, within this incredibly difficult time, there will be opportunities, to take a risk, accelerate change, repair, or adapt and set for the future. In this future, the consumer holds enormous power. So perhaps a better question is this:

How will you use the opportunity COVID presents you? [3]

To succeed, organisations need to be ambidextrous.

According to a Harvard Business Review study completed in 2004 [3], most organisations are adept at refining their current offer, but they falter when it comes to pioneering radically new products and services. The reason lies in an ability to be ambidextrous.

Ambidextrous organisations are able to exploit the present and explore the future, simultaneously.

Typically, the same people and systems can't both 'exploit' and 'explore'. There needs to be a separation between the business operations and discovery oriented work. This is where external teams with deep knowledge and experience in strategic innovation are best used. They are capable of delivering the needed level of ambidexterity when new thinking is imperative.

The Roman god Janus had two sets of eyes—one pair focusing on what lay behind, the other on what lay ahead. General managers and corporate executives should be able to relate. They, too, must constantly look backward, attending to the products and processes of the past, while also gazing forward, preparing for the innovations that will define the future.

The Ambidextrous Organisation
Harvard Business Review, 2004

CapFeather supports your organisation to exploit your existing customer offer and explore new strategic opportunities.

Why CapFeather?

We help mature firms find new and sustainable opportunities by looking beyond the immediate horizon.

Ambidexterity is needed for exponential growth. While your team excels at business right now, we help you design the path for its future success.

Over 20 years of senior advisory, our people have worked on more than 200 projects to deliver bottom line growth and new revenue through product and service innovation - achieved though compelling customer relationships.

References

[1] Clayton M. Christensen, Richard Alton, Curtis Rising, and Andrew Waldeck, The Big Idea: The New M&A Playbook, Harvard Business Review March 2011

[2] PWC CEO Success Study 2018

[3] Lean CX: How to Differentiate at Low Cost and Least Risk by Dr Robert Dew, Bill Russell, George Bej, Cyrus Allen, De Gruyter 2021

[4] Charles A. O’Reilly III and Michael L. Tushman, The Ambidextrous Organization, Harvard Business Review, April 2004

[5] Mehrdad Baghai, Stephen Coley, and David White, The Alchemy of Growth, New York: Perseus Publishing, 1999.