Agility

The essense of agility is a strategic framework for companies to make them competitive in a very dynamic environment where the market demand and customer expectations change very rapidly and products/services are very short-lived. It’s the new agility paradigm for the 21st century (it started in 1991 with the Iacocca Institute initiative), after the lean paradigm (which started in 1952 with Toyota’s production system), the mass production paradigm (which started in 1917 with Ford’s assambly plant in Detroit), and the old crafts production paradigm of the 19th Century (started in the UK with the “industrial revolution”) 

The fundamental differences between the lean and agility paradigm lie in the ability to reconfigure the business processes  “on-the-fly” as customer’s expectations and market opportunities change in an unpreceeded and relentlessly dynamic environment. This implies dramatic changes in organizational structures, management styles, workforce and union involvement, rapid product development, manufacturing and logistics processes and systems, marketing and sales processes, just to name a few.. The use of virtual organizations is just one means that could be used by a company to become more agile

Six attributes make up our Corporate Agility Model - the weighted grouping of competencies which will most effectively ensure successful growth in the volatile markets of today. Agile organizations should be “Modular”, “Innovative”, “Focused”, “Learning”, “Informed” and “Customer-obsessed”.

In more detail, the six agility attributes may be described as follows:

The “modular” organization

There are two aspects to being a modular organization:  the first concerns the nature of its internal processes and systems, while the second involves the way it relates to the outside world.

In terms of its internal operations, the modular organization has processes and systems that are rapidly reconfigurable.  As customer requirements evolve at increasing speeds in the dynamic market, the continuous adaptation of business processes in order to accommodate these changes will be essential for success.  Organizational structures will, equally, need to be increasingly adaptable, allowing for maximum levels of independence and flexibility within individual units.  It follows from this that the people who work in modular enterprises must themselves be agile and enjoy working in ways which are frequently changing.

In terms of its outward-facing activities, the modular organization is one which, realizing that the provision of total solutions will increasingly lie outside the scope of any single enterprise, participates in a number of “virtual networks” with outside partners, allowing it to set up temporary collaborative arrangements when specific solutions require this level of interconnection.

The “innovative” organization

The innovative organization is one which is constantly seeking to develop new products and services to meet the rapidly-changing needs of the dynamic market.  This, however, requires more than just warm words and a vague espousal of “innovation”;  it requires a culture of innovation to be planted throughout the enterprise - one which, for example, empowers people rather than expects them simply to follow orders, and which encourages experimentation even though mistakes may be the result.  Innovation in terms of business processes and external partnerships is also required if the organization is to become genuinely modular, as described above.

The “focused” organization

The agile organization must also be focused.  Successful, high-growth organizations measure their whole business against just two or three key measures.  The agile company sets clear targets which are communicated throughout the organization.  It also monitors (and rewards where appropriate) performance.  The focused organization is also ruthlessly decisive in disposing of units or projects which no longer add value.

The “learning” organization

The successful agile company is one which recognizes the competitive value of having people who are strongly committed to learning and improving, and which ensures a culture which promotes these.  This may take the form of learning more about individual customers and their requirements in order to provide them with better solutions, learning from specific situations so that knowledge gained by dealing with one customer can be applied to solutions designed for others, or learning from competitors or partners.  The learning organization recognizes the importance of learning, at all levels, for innovation and for the drive to provide continuously improved solutions in a competitive market.

The “informed” organization

If “learning” describes primarily the human activity which helps make an organization agile and successful, “informed” describes the resulting state of the organization itself.  The informed organization is one which continuously seeks to maximize its  utilization of any relevant information which can help it to improve its products or services.  This means, certainly, making the best use of available technology and specialist expertise, but it also means ensuring that all information about products, services and customers is up to date and easily available via enterprise-wide information systems .  Other important information may concern such things as potential partners (in case collaboration is suddenly called for), available resources, or the standards set by other organizations which may be used as benchmarks.

The “customer value-obsessed” organization

In the dynamic markets ahead, the successful organization will be obsessed with the need to provide added value to its customers - and ready, willing and agile enough to provide that added value, whatever it may consist in.  This entails a deeply-held commitment to identifying and monitoring customers’ needs, providing a total solution which meets those needs, and offering full life-cycle support thereafter.  No longer will it be enough, as it was in the old days of mass production and mass marketing, simply to deliver a product.  Increasingly, organizations will have to offer a partnership - understanding the customer within his own environment and working to provide an individual, customized solution.  This will require time and effort.  And it will require the agility provided by the five attributes listed above if the customer value-obsessed organization is genuinely to be able to respond to its customers’ developing requirements, as and when it identifies them.