In The Innovators Solution, Christensen and Raynor propose a method to define what organizations can and cannot accomplish – the RPV Framework. The RPV framework is composed of Resources, Processes, and Values.
Christensen and Raynor propose a decision-making model to help managers of New Growth Businesses assess the correct organizational structure and home for the New Growth Business.
In some cases, when launching a New Growth Businesses, managers should deploy what Business School Professors Kim Clark and Steven Wheelwright call a heavyweight team.
Heavyweight vs Lightweight Teams
When new processes need to be created, it requires a heavyweight team. The term refers to a group of people who are pulled out of their functional organizations and placed in a team structure that allows them to interact over different issues at a different pace and with different organization groups than they habitually could across boundaries of functional organizations. Conversely, lightweight teams are tools to exploit existing processes.
When to use a Heavyweight Team
When there is a well-defined interface between the activities of two different people or organizational groups – meaning that you can clearly specify what each is supposed to deliver, you can measure and verify what they deliver, and there are no unanticipated interdependencies between what one does and what the other must do in response – then those people and groups can interface at arm’s length and do not need to be on the same team.
When these conditions are not met, then all unpredictable interdependencies should be incorporated within the boundaries of a heavyweight team. The team’s external boundary can be drawn where there are modular interfaces.
To be successful, heavyweight teams should be co-located
Source: The Innovators Solution