For many airports, organisational capability has become a more pressing issue in recent years.

Teams are often being asked to do more with fewer resources, while experienced people have left organisations and the knowledge they accumulated over many years has not always had the opportunity to be fully transferred or rebuilt. Newer team members may also have had less opportunity to develop that experience through coaching, mentoring and exposure to a wide range of operational situations.

At the same time, the environment in which those teams operate has become no simpler. Airports are managing complex operational demands, changing technology, regulatory requirements, investment decisions and relationships with an increasingly specialised range of service providers and suppliers.

Outsourcing specialist activities can be part of the answer. But outsourcing delivery does not remove the need for capability within the airport itself. In some respects, it makes that capability more important.

What does it mean to be an intelligent customer?

Being an intelligent customer does not mean retaining large internal teams capable of doing everything a specialist supplier can do.

It means retaining enough knowledge, experience and organisational capability to understand what the airport needs, define appropriate outcomes and requirements, evaluate the options available and challenge advice or proposals when necessary.

It also means being able to recognise when something is not performing as expected — and having the information, expertise and governance arrangements necessary to do something about it.

This matters throughout the lifecycle of a service or investment. An airport needs capability before procurement to determine what it actually requires; during procurement to evaluate potential solutions; during transition to understand and manage risk; and throughout delivery to assess performance and maintain an effective relationship with its suppliers.

The question therefore isn't simply “Do we have enough people?”

A better question is:

“Do we have the capability we need to make good decisions and remain an intelligent customer?”

Capability is more than headcount

Organisational capability is not simply the sum of individual qualifications or the number of people within a team.

It includes experience and institutional knowledge, but also the processes through which knowledge is shared, decisions are made and performance is understood. It includes access to specialist expertise when required, effective succession and development, clear accountability and the ability to translate strategic objectives into operational and commercial requirements.

This distinction matters.

An organisation may have fewer internal resources than it once did while still retaining strong capability if it understands which knowledge and functions are critical and has deliberately structured itself around them.

Conversely, an organisation can appear adequately resourced while remaining dependent on a small number of individuals, undocumented knowledge or suppliers for information it needs to make important decisions.

Those vulnerabilities may remain largely invisible during normal operations.

They tend to become much more apparent when something changes.

Change exposes capability

A major procurement, a new technology, a change in regulation, significant investment or a deterioration in operational performance can quickly test an organisation's underlying capability.

Questions that appeared straightforward become harder:

What are we actually trying to achieve?

Do we understand current performance well enough to establish an effective baseline?

Can we translate our strategic objectives into clear requirements?

Do we have sufficient knowledge to challenge the solutions being proposed?

Are we measuring the things that genuinely matter?

Who within the organisation owns the decision — and who understands its wider consequences?

These are not simply technical questions. They cross operational, commercial and strategic boundaries.

That is why understanding organisational capability should form part of good decision-making before a major change or procurement begins, rather than becoming something that is examined only after difficulties emerge.

Strategy defines where the airport wants to go. Capability determines whether the organisation can get there.

Five areas worth examining

At Solus, we consider organisational capability across five connected areas.

Strategic Planning considers whether the organisation has a clear understanding of its objectives, future requirements and priorities — and whether these are translated effectively into operational and investment decisions.

Resource Management looks beyond numbers to consider whether the organisation has access to the skills, experience, knowledge and development it needs. This includes succession, knowledge transfer and the ability to access specialist expertise when required.

Service Delivery considers whether responsibilities, processes and operational requirements are sufficiently understood to manage services effectively and respond when performance or circumstances change.

Compliance considers whether regulatory and other obligations are understood, appropriately owned and embedded within the organisation's activities rather than treated as a separate exercise.

Quality & Procurement considers how requirements are defined, suppliers and solutions are evaluated, performance is assessed and lessons are fed back into future decisions.

The value lies not simply in looking at each area individually, but in understanding the relationships between them.

A weakness in strategic planning can lead to poorly defined requirements. Limited internal expertise can make it harder to challenge a supplier. Weak performance information can make it difficult to determine whether a service is delivering the intended outcome.

Capability gaps rarely remain neatly contained within organisational boundaries.

From assumption to evidence

Most organisations have an instinctive sense of where they are strong and where there may be weaknesses.

That is useful — but it is not always sufficient.

Different people within the same organisation may have very different perceptions of its capability. Senior leaders may see clear governance and processes while those responsible for day-to-day delivery experience something different. Operational teams may understand an issue in considerable depth without that knowledge being visible elsewhere in the organisation.

A structured assessment provides an opportunity to make those perceptions visible.

It can help establish a baseline, identify areas of strength, expose potential gaps and, importantly, provide a basis for deciding where further attention is actually worthwhile.

The objective isn't to maximise capability everywhere.

It is to understand which capabilities matter to the organisation, whether they are sufficiently strong for the decisions and challenges ahead, and where investment or change would create the greatest value.

How capable is your organisation?

We've developed the Solus Capability Assessment as a practical way for airport organisations to consider these questions.

The assessment examines capability across Strategic Planning, Resource Management, Service Delivery, Compliance, and Quality & Procurement.

It is designed to provide a structured view of current capability, highlighting areas of relative strength and those that may warrant further consideration.

Complete the Solus Capability Assessment →

Capability is rarely an end in itself.

It determines an organisation's ability to make good decisions, manage its suppliers, respond effectively to change and turn strategy into outcomes.

The first step is understanding where you are today.