Srinivas is a manager in a Global Competence Center (GCC) and has a department of around 40 engineers. The GCC works on several Smart Devices and Connected Products. His department provides features within these Products related to wireless technologies. Srinivas has organized his people into 5 Agile Teams. One agile team is comprising of very experienced engineers who have been with the company for long and are having deep knowledge on their company proprietary communication protocol. At least 30% of their Products still work on these protocols. The second agile team works on Near-Field Communication (NFC) technologies. Likewise, the remaining agile teams work on ZigBee, Bluetooth and 802.11 (WiFi) respectively. Currently they are working on a proof-of-concept in the product with WiFi capability.
We have helped Srinivas to draw up the portfolio of his Department’s Skills & Knowledge. Now, can you help him with what actions he could take?
Hint: you can read our blog to get some ideas: https://pm-powerconsulting.com/blog/cagr-half-life-of-skills-knowledge/
Note*: The Technologies named have respective trademarks and the numbers in the table shown are for discussion purposes only.
Scroll down for the proposed Solution !
Suggested Solution:
Some of the actions that could be taken look like below:
| Technologies and Skills Associated | CAGR* | Half-Life* | Recommended Actions |
| Company Proprietary Protocol | -10% | 2 years | Immediately Re-Skill engineers in this team with one other technology with a higher CAGR |
| NFC | 5% | 3 years | Start discussions on Re-Skilling engineers in this team |
| ZigBee | 2% | 2 years | Gradually Re-Skill engineers in this team with one other technology with a higher CAGR |
| Bluetooth | 15% | 3 years | Build more capacity and capability in this area by re-skilling other team members |
| WiFi | 5% | 4 years | Build more capacity and capability in this area by re-skilling other team members |
Note*: The Technologies named have respective trademarks and the numbers in the table shown are for discussion purposes only.
There is one other action which Srinivas should immediately take:
Re-Organize his Agile Teams with a better mix
of engineers with different technology skills. Engineers in each of the teams will
have T-Shaped skills rather than one specialization. This way the teams and
hence members are better prepared for adaptation to emerging technologies.
