3 Imagine you are the general manager of an organisation of your choice and undertake the same exercise as in questions 1 and 2 above. The Australian Red Cross To achieve the vision of improving the lives of vulnerable people the Australian Red Cross emphasises the crucial role of capabilities in its strategic plan. ‘Capabilities are integral to our overriding strategy to create one Red Cross,’ writes CEO Robert Tickner. The Australian Red Cross distinguishes between technical competency and behavioural capability.

The former refers to specialist skills and may include such competencies as project management, financial management, community development, social work, administrative or in information technology. Capabilities at the Red Cross refer to the behaviours they expect its people to demonstrate in order to be successful in achieving objectives. The organisation aims to increasingly invest in the capabilities and skills of Red Cross people and supporters including members, branches and units, volunteers, aid workers, staff and donors.

For example, this involves investing in a diverse workforce and supporter base, with strong engagement of ‘young people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and other culturally and linguistically diverse people’. The emphasis is on people who are engaged, dynamic, innovative, entrepreneurial and motivated to realise the vision and goals.1 AstraZeneca For AstraZeneca, a leading global pharmaceutical company, both resources and capabilities feature prominently when they describe their strategy: ‘R&D resources: We have approximately 8,400 employees in our R&D organisation, working in various sites around the world. We have three strategic R&D centres: Gaithersburg, MD, US; Gothenburg, Sweden; and Cambridge, UK’; ‘We are using our distinctive scientific capabilities, as well as investing in key programmes and focused business development, to deliver life-changing medicines’; ‘[Our] Distinctive R&D capabilities: Small molecules, oligonucleotides and other emerging drug platforms, as well as biologic medicines, including immunotherapies, and innovative delivery devices’; ‘Co-location near bioscience clusters at three strategic centres. . . helps to leverage our capabilities and foster collaboration with leading scientists and research organisations’; ‘Operations 2020 was launched in 2015 to enhance supply capabilities in order to respond better to patient and market needs’; ‘We will also harness our internal capabilities to develop robust strategies on data and analytics, software engineering and cloud technology – all of which will support the business and its various transformation programmes.’2 Infosys The Indian company Infosys is a global leader in information technology, outsourcing, system integration services and IT consulting. It is listed as one of the world’s most reputable companies with close to 150,000 employees worldwide.

The company’s ‘Infosys 3.0 strategy’ is taking a further step to provide more advanced IT products and services, which requires investments in new resources and capabilities. Infosys CEO S.D. Shibulal: ‘We continue to make focused investments in our organisational capabilities.’