The Typewriter Mechanic
The best typewriter mechanic in the world still could not save the typewriter.
Around 1985, the best typewriter mechanic in the world perfected their craft. Every ribbon change flawless. Every key alignment precise.
By 1995, they were unemployed. Not because they were bad, but because the job itself was absorbed by something that needed no mechanic at all.
Clayton Christensen called this The Innovator’s Dilemma: organisations fail not because they stop improving, but because they keep improving the wrong thing. Kodak made better film. Blockbuster opened more stores. Nokia built sturdier phones.
If your team’s greatest strength is efficiency at something the market no longer values, you do not have a capability. You have an expensive habit.
SOURCE Capability