The Catapult Capability Centres: Unleashing the Power of Human Connection and Innovation

The Catapult Capability Centres (CCC) have drawn inspiration from two seemingly unrelated concepts: Gore-Tex and the Dunbar Number to foster innovation and collaboration within our teams and clients.

Gore-Tex, a revolutionary fabric known for its waterproof, windproof, and breathable properties, is the product of a unique corporate culture at Gore Associates. This culture is characterized by a "flat" hierarchy, where employees are empowered to make decisions and innovate. No Gore-Tex factory is greater that 150 employees.

The Dunbar Number, on the other hand, is a theoretical limit on the number of people with whom any one person can maintain meaningful trust-based relationships. Proposed by anthropologist Robin Dunbar, this number is often estimated to be around 150-250.

How do these concepts intersect and create value for CCC?

• Innovation and Collaboration: No individual CCC would exceed 150 people (“CCC POD”) to enable fostering strong social networks and a culture of innovation.
• Ownership and Trust: Each CCC POD has their own P&L, profit & equity share, formal say in Company level policy formulation, Independence to formulate POD level policies. This creates an environment of “Nested Entrepreneurship”, thereby motivating our teams to make decisions and innovate, which contributes to our client’s success.
• Purpose led organization: The CCC POD programmatically runs initiatives to serve the community they are a part of. This creates a sense of purpose thereby lowering attrition, higher employee engagement, greater self-esteem and superior value creation for clients.

These ultimately result in higher Net Promoter Scores (NPS).