Overview

What is the goal of the Think-Tanks?
The primary goal of the Roadmaps Institute™ Think-Tanks is….

“To define and document the world’s best business capabilities.”

What are the types of Think-Tanks?
There are two types of Think-Tanks: Industry Segment Think-Tanks and Core Competency Think-Tanks.  The two types of Think-Tank are symbiotic.

Why focus on capabilities?
Most companies focus their improvement efforts on solving poor performance that has already occurred.  Hence, the measurement of performance means that the improvement will be reactive.  In contrast, capabilities are the drivers of performance.  If a company focuses on improving capabilities (or developing new capabilities) then performance problems can be proactively mitigated.  The Roadmaps Institute™ is focused on helping companies and organizations to become proactive and world-class.  By documenting capabilities, companies and organizations have tangible ways to increase performance.

The focus on world-class capabilities is presented in the figure above to illustrate the need for optimization across all industries and world-class best practices in general versus within a single industry, enterprise or chain.  Managers are encouraged to think of the segments given in the red circles from their perspective.

Who can join the Think-Tanks?
The Roadmaps Institute™ invites two groups to participate in Think-Tanks: faculty from the best business schools in the world and industry leaders that have an understanding of and desire to learn about best practices.  For industry leaders, we focus on finding management from the best companies in the world.  We also recruit managers responsible for their company’s benchmarking and innovation programs.

Where do the Think-Tanks Meet?
The meeting place for these prominent experts cannot be bound by “bricks and mortar” since their time is too valuable to be spent traveling across the globe for meetings.  The collaborative space is a virtual, online Think-Tank with an embedded conference designed to facilitate unprecedented collaboration and results.

Why not just use surveys?
Assessments, which serve as a form of survey, will be used to identify and justify the maintenance of best practices in the step charts.  In addition, surveys will be used to identify best practices that already exist in mainstream management.  Surveys ask managers what they believe are best practices.  As a result, a new business practice is lost in the mix of stable, existing business practices.  The Roadmaps Institute™ strives to discover the latest and best business practices not already documented heavily in the literature or well known to managers in industry.  Think-Tanks are the best way such a goal can be properly accomplished.

Who facilitates the Think-Tanks?
Think-Tanks are facilitated by a Chairperson, Moderator and Administrator using an online collaboration environment.  The organizational structure is simple.  The Think-Tank members elect the Chairperson each year.  The Chairperson contacts the Think-Tank members to start and end online interaction periods.  The Chairperson appoints the Moderator who monitors and guides the discussions.  The Moderator establishes the initial list of discussions that will occur in the Think-Tank based on a template provided by the Roadmaps Institute™.  The Roadmaps Institute™ supplies the Administrator for setup, support, technical help and general questions.

What is the Annual "Best Practices" Think-Tank Conference?
The Roadmaps Institute™ has developed a better way to host a conference to determine the world’s best practices.  Instead of a face-to-face conference, the Roadmaps Institute™ holds an annual, one-month online conference called the Annual "Best Practices" Think-Tank Conference.  An illustration of the virtual layout of the conference is presented in the following figure. 

Colored dots in the figure represent collaborating groups.  One can envision the collaboration as a group of people gathering at a round table, hence the dot icon.  Red dots represent industry segment groups.  Blue dots represent core competency groups. Within each group or dot, multiple discussion topics exist with many sub-threads.

Think-Tank members manage both the closed and open sessions as illustrated in the figure below.  For example, the World-Class Cost Management Think-Tank holds its closed session discussions in a secured collaborative environment.  Then, for one focused month of the year, the World-Class Cost Management Think-Tank hosts discussions open to all Roadmaps Institute™ members in the Open Forum collaborative environment.

The conference will convene each October for the Open Forum focused period.  A focused period means that all Roadmaps Institute™ members will be encouraged to participate in the Open Forum discussions for a period of four weeks.  Special events, such as keynote online speakers will be available to encourage participation.  Although all of the Think-Tanks will be available all year, a focused period provides greater opportunity for the discussions in the Open Forum area to be active and produce results.

The closed sessions also have focused periods.  The Think-Tank Chairperson schedules the focused periods to address special needs, such as debating and approving the new World-Class Management Step Chart or Industry Segment Model.  Closed sessions will occur during the conference simultaneously with the open sessions in the Open Forum.

Case: Imagine the Possibilities
Imagine you are a President of a Financial Times Global 500 company in Germany and you have just entered your username and password to attend a Roadmaps Institute™ Think-Tank.  On your screen, a Foyer appears that resembles a lobby to a large conference center.  In front of you is a grand hall lined with two rows of meeting rooms. 

Each room on the left row has a placard announcing the focus of the Core Competency Think-Tank group meeting inside.  A glance into one room reveals faculty from the world’s best business schools interacting with leaders from the world’s best-managed businesses. 

Each room on the right row hosts professionals from academia and industry participating in Industry Segment Think-Tanks.  Neatly displayed, the rooms and hall are populated by meeting tables teeming with participants, ongoing presentations, accessible publications, and collaborative workspaces.

You enter the Open Forum, where you see colleagues of yours from South Korea, France and Mexico are sitting at a table debating the merits of including Program Management as a critical core competency in the Automotive Industry model.

You realize “This conference is clearly designed to network with colleagues, develop relationships and --- ultimately --- share and learn best practices.”

After about an hour of invigorating debate and discussion, your watch alarm goes off.  You logout, leave your office and walk down the hall to a board meeting.
After all, you never left your workplace to attend the virtual conference.

Contact Us
Please contact Dr. Cecilia Williams with specific questions regarding the Think-Tanks at thinktanks@roadmapsinstitute.org. Dr. Williams serves as the Executive Vice-President and Director of Research at the Roadmaps Institute™.

Core Competency

The Roadmaps Institute™ is starting with ten Core Competency Think-Tanks covering the following business management core competencies:

• World-Class Cost Management Think-Tank
• World-Class Customer Management Think-Tank
• World-Class Demand Management Think-Tank
• World-Class Design Management Think-Tank
• World-Class eCommerce Management Think-Tank
• World-Class Leadership Management Think-Tank
• World-Class Lean Management Think-Tank
• World-Class Program Management Think-Tank
• World-Class Quality Management Think-Tank
• World-Class Supplier Management Think-Tank

Immediately upon the release of the initial ten Core Competency Think-Tanks, the Roadmaps Institute™ received requests to add more think-tanks to cover additional core competencies.  We encourage anyone interested in developing a new Think-Tank to contact the Roadmaps Institute at thinktanks@roadmapsinstitute.org.

Core Competency Think-Tank Process
Core Competency Think-Tanks focus on the annual development and agreement on the attributes to be included in the World-Class Management Step Charts.  For example, the World-Class Cost Management Think-Tank focuses will review results from industry such as the step chart in the following figure, to determine which attributes are relevant to keep in chart for the next year.

Core Competency Think-Tank Process
Core Competency Think-Tanks have phases similar to the Industry Segment Think-Tanks with the key difference being that the focus is strictly on a given step chart for one core competency that spans multiple, if not all, industries.

1. Review Results - The first phase is to review aggregate assessment results from organizations that evaluated their capabilities using the step chart over the previous year.  Results are generated from the SCORE Reports of organizations.  Only aggregate information from multiple organizations or information without organization names will be disclosed by the Roadmaps Institute™.
2. Review New/Rewritten Attributes - The second phase requires reviewing attributes that have developed over the previous twelve months.  Sources for new attributes will be outlined in literature that will be provided.  Some reports used will come from the Industry Segment Think-Tanks.  Each attribute selected then becomes part of the step chart model.
3. Select Attributes - The final phase consists of deciding on the attributes required for the new version of the step chart.  Decisions should reflect the existing states of industry with little speculative input.  That said, if a new best practice capability has emerged at only one organization and the capability is repeatable at other organizations, then the capability should be added to the model.  Decisions will be made as to which attributes are the most important to keep in the model, since the step chart must fit onto one page.

Example: Core Competency Chart Development
In the World-Class eCommerce Management Think-Tank, an online discussion might focus on Enterprise Resource Planning with a sub-thread on “Linking independent ERP systems across organizations” (often abbreviated as ERP2ERP).  The sub-thread would be one of many.  The goal of the sub-thread would be to answer two questions regarding the capability to link ERP systems using ERP2ERP with external customers, external suppliers and internal (but ERP system separate) divisions.  First, should ERP2ERP be listed in the World-Class eCommerce Management Step Chart?  Second, if yes, then in which step (Clerical, Mechanical, Proactive or World-Class) should the attribute be listed in the chart?

Industry Segment

The Roadmaps Institute™ currently hosts ten Industry Segment Think-Tanks covering the following industries:

• Aerospace Industry Think-Tank
• Automotive Industry Think-Tank
• Defense Industry Think-Tank
• Energy Industry Think-Tank
• Mining Industry Think-Tank
• Retail Industry Think-Tank
• Services Industry Think-Tank
• Telecommunications Industry Think-Tank
• Transportation Industry Think-Tank
• Utilities Industry Think-Tank

Immediately upon the release of the initial ten Industry Segment Think-Tanks, the Roadmaps Institute™ received requests to add more think-tanks to cover additional industry segments.  We encourage anyone interested in developing a new Think-Tank to contact the Roadmaps Institute at thinktanks@roadmapsinstitute.org.

Industry Segment Think-Tank Process
Industry Segment Think-Tanks have three required phases of action each year.  The required phases are as follows:

1. Review Results - The first phase is to review aggregate assessment results from companies that evaluated their capabilities using the step charts for the industry model over the previous year.  Results are generated from the SCORE Reports of organizations.  Only aggregate information from multiple organizations or information without organization names will be disclosed by the Roadmaps Institute™.
2. Select Core Competencies - The second phase is to decide on what core competencies should be included in DR²IVE™ Industry Segment Model for the next year.  Each core competency selected then becomes a step chart in the model.
3. Influence Attributes - The final phase consists of providing the Core Competency Think-Tanks a report outlining best practices from the industry that the Industry Think-Tank believes should be included in specific step charts.

Example: Industry Segment Model Development

In an early version of an Aerospace Industry Think-Tank, leaders from academia, government and industry collaborated to decide which core competencies best described the Aerospace Industry.  They decided upon the following core competencies: Cost Management, Customer Management, Demand Management, Design Management, eCommerce Management, Leadership Management, Lean Management, Quality Management, Program Management, and Supplier Management.  Next, the group populated step charts with attributes to create the model.  The industry leaders then reviewed the charts and made suggestions for improvement.  The result was the first Aerospace and Defense Industry Model.

The model is presented in the figure below with points plotted to show how managers can quickly highlight core competency gaps.  Two teams from a major Aerospace and Defense company measured the points.  One team represented a European division and the other a North American division.