"You don't need more capacity. You need coordination infrastructure."
THE CAPACITY ILLUSION
When organizations hit constraints, the default response is predictable: hire more people, buy more equipment, expand facilities. Add capacity.
But here's what the GPI reveals: most organizations aren't capacity-constrained. They're coordination-constrained. The capability already exists. It's just not accessible.
Latent capability is the gap between what exists and what's deployed. It's the skill your employee has that you never use. The connection between departments that never activates. The asset sitting idle while demand goes unmet elsewhere.
THE PHARMACY PARADOX
Independent pharmacies across a region have excess capacity. Each one can fill more prescriptions than they receive. Meanwhile, CVS locations run at maximum utilization, turning customers away during peak hours.
The independent pharmacies have latent capability. CVS has coordination infrastructure (centralized systems, brand recognition, insurance integrations). Neither has both. The one that figures out how to coordinate distributed capacity wins.
TYPES OF LATENT CAPABILITY
Latent capability hides in different forms. Each type requires different coordination infrastructure to unlock.
SKILL LATENCY
Capabilities people have that the organization doesn't deploy. The engineer who's also a graphic designer. The sales rep who speaks Mandarin. The manager who built databases before moving to management.
Rigid role definitions create skill latency. When job descriptions determine what people do (rather than what they can do), capability sits unused.
GPI Impact: High Talent Flow scores (7-10) indicate skill latency. People are locked in roles, not flowing to problems.
NETWORK LATENCY
Connections that exist but aren't activated. The sales team knows what customers need, but product never hears it. The operations team solved a problem that engineering is still working on. Information exists in one silo while another silo searches for it.
Network latency is a coordination failure. The nodes exist. The edges exist. But no signal flows.
GPI Impact: High Knowledge Location scores (7-10) indicate network latency. Information is trapped, not flowing.
TEMPORAL LATENCY
Capacity that exists but at the wrong time. Restaurants empty at 3pm while catering orders go unfulfilled. Consultants idle between projects while urgent requests wait in queue. Delivery trucks half-empty on return routes.
Temporal latency is a scheduling coordination problem. Capacity exists. Demand exists. They just don't meet.
GPI Impact: High Decision Latency scores (7-10) often mask temporal latency. Slow systems can't match supply and demand in real-time.
SPATIAL LATENCY
Assets that exist but in the wrong place. Medical equipment underutilized in one hospital, scarce in another. Inventory sitting in warehouse A while warehouse B has stockouts. Expertise concentrated in headquarters while field offices struggle.
Spatial latency is a logistics coordination problem. Assets are owned but not positioned where value can be created.
GPI Impact: High Structural Lock-In scores (7-10) create spatial latency. Infrastructure can't flex to where it's needed.
THE COORDINATION GAP
Latent capability has always existed. What's new is our ability to activate it.
In 1937, economist Ronald Coase asked why firms exist at all. His answer: transaction costs. It's cheaper to coordinate work inside a company than to contract for it outside. Firms exist because coordination across markets is expensive.
What happens when coordination costs approach zero?
Firm boundaries dissolve. Latent capability becomes accessible. The independent pharmacies can coordinate like a chain without being a chain. The freelance specialists can operate like a firm without the firm.
MARKETPLACE VS INFRASTRUCTURE
MARKETPLACE MODEL
Uber, Airbnb, Upwork
- • Extracts value from coordination
- • Platform captures margin
- • Providers commoditized
- • Race to bottom on price
INFRASTRUCTURE MODEL
The emerging alternative
- • Enables coordination without extraction
- • Providers retain value
- • Capability differentiated
- • Competition on quality
ACTIVATING LATENT CAPABILITY
The process of activating latent capability follows a pattern:
VISIBILITY
First, see what exists. Map skills beyond job descriptions. Document connections between nodes. Track temporal utilization patterns. Inventory spatial distribution of assets.
ACCESSIBILITY
Make capability findable. Build the search infrastructure. Create the matching algorithms. Enable the discovery that currently doesn't happen.
ACTIVATION
Remove friction from deployment. Reduce the approval layers. Simplify the logistics. Make it easier to use latent capability than to request new capacity.
FEEDBACK
Learn from activation. Which latent capabilities create value? Which coordination patterns work? Build the intelligence layer that makes activation smarter over time.
THE 30% FINDING
Across industries, a consistent pattern emerges: organizations typically have 20-40% more capability than they deploy. The average is around 30%.
That's not waste in the traditional sense. It's not people slacking or equipment broken. It's capability that exists in the wrong form, wrong place, or wrong time. It's latency, not laziness.
WHERE THE 30% HIDES
What would 30% more capability mean for your organization? Not 30% more headcount. Not 30% more budget. Just activating what already exists.
GPI AND LATENT CAPABILITY
High GPI scores create latent capability. Low GPI scores activate it.
PARTICLE STATE (GPI 7-10)
Rigid role definitions trap skill latency. Siloed knowledge creates network latency. Slow decisions cause temporal latency. Fixed infrastructure generates spatial latency. Particle state maximizes latent capability by preventing coordination.
FIELD STATE (GPI 1-3)
Fluid roles release skill latency. Connected knowledge eliminates network latency. Fast decisions capture temporal opportunities. Flexible infrastructure solves spatial mismatches. Field state minimizes latent capability by enabling coordination.
The path from particle to field isn't about adding capability. It's about activating the capability that's already latent. The coordination infrastructure that enables field state is the same infrastructure that unlocks latent capability.
KEY INSIGHT
Before you add capacity, audit latency. Before you hire, coordinate. Before you buy, activate. The capability you need probably already exists. The question is whether you have the coordination infrastructure to deploy it. You don't need more. You need to use what you have.