Wiley & sas business Series

    WHAT SHOULD IT FOCUS ON? 
 Embedding analysts in business units is a valid option. For one, it ’s 
easy—it doesn ’t require any broader strategy. Just hire the person and 
set her to work. 
 Unfortunately, it does little to help with the trends discussed in 
Chapter 2. While it does allow a great deal of fl exibility, it does little to 
encourage reuse, human capital development, or economies of scale 
and scope. Left alone without management support or a mandate to 
work otherwise, people will normally work independently. 
 The rise of ro¯nin will eventually force most organizations to 
think about trying to centralize and reuse their analytical capabi lities. 
Technology is infi nitely reproducible; people are not. That ’s not to 
say that embedded analysts are a bad thing. As a hiring model, it ’s an 
excellent augmentation to centralized approaches. There just aren ’t 
enough analysts in the market to realize every opportunity through 
continually hiring new people. 
 The decision to set up a central group (in some form) is a logical 
conclusion. It does, however, inevitably lead to the question of what it 
should focus on. Every group needs a purpose. 
 It ’s helpful to consider a shared group ’s function along three lines: 
(1) They can help build knowledge; (2) they can help deliver; or (3) they 
can help transform the organization. Organizations that decide to cen-
tralize their capabilities often call the result Communities of Practice, 
Competency Centers, or Centers of Excellence. 
 It ’s important to recognize that these defi nitions aren ’t absolute; 
you say tom a to, I say tom ah to. Defi nitions vary and, as yet, standard 
names do not exist. They 
’re used here to highlight how structure 
and focus can vary even when there 
’s a defi ned departmental or 
 enterprise-wide capability. 

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