This paper adopts a broadly institutional perspective to explore the curriculum design and content of the general practitioner (GP) trainee as a lens with which to examine the antecedents of business capability development within GP practices. More specifically, this paper seeks to establish the relative lack of attention paid to business capability development at the professional institutional level and contrast this with contemporary pressures experienced by GP partnership practices. In particular, this paper argues that failure at the institutional level of the Royal College of General Practitioners to address dynamic capability development by GP partnerships through training, contributes to problems of partnership performance at a time of increased environmental dynamism.