A Center of Excellence might only imply a place if you are a team of one. Then, I suppose, the Center of Excellence might be wherever you happen to be at the moment since that’s where you are! When the “center” adds another resource, that’s when the fun starts and creativity should apply. Unless the two resources happen to be in the same spot all the time, the center has evolved into a Multipoint of Excellence or perhaps a Dispersed Center of Excellence. I only toss in these buzzwords to illustrate that a word or phrase sometimes leads thinking and imagination down a specific path. A Center of Excellence is not a place, it’s an aggregation of resources focused and working towards an accelerated level of performance in a specific discipline.
As soon as a business is more than regional, it is critical not to confine one’s thinking to geographical boundaries. Global implies being everywhere, working everywhere and creating everywhere. Specific talents are prized resources within organizations, and if an organization is global, what is the likelihood that all the most talented resources are located in the same physical place? If it’s important not to confine one’s thinking to geographical boundaries, isn’t an office or office campus a geographical boundary?
Yesterday’s constructs should not constrain tomorrow’s progress. Tools and capabilities including AI and other productivity and connection enhancing capabilities need to be exploited in order to maximize the value of the human team. Collaboration can and needs to happen across any and every artificial boundary in order for an organization to innovate and survive in the future.
