Almost 90 percent of CEOs agree that being agile in difficult times is extremely important for organisation’s success.
A research has shown that agile organisations outpace non-agile organisations in several aspects, from profitability to customers and talent.
In order to thrive and create sustainable and profitable business, organisations have to overcome various obstacles. Market game changers and rapid innovation cycles of competitors are making it harder for organisations to stay afloat in business.
For organisations to outdo their competitors, there are 5 big external game changers to look out for:
- Tech tsunami
- Changing customer expectations
- Social issues
- Geopolitical shifts
- “Spendonomics”
To be able to quickly respond and adapt to these changing market requirements, organisations should make use of agility.
Agile solution
Seventy-two percent of European organisations consider agility strategically important for the success of their business. However, almost 80 percent of organisations are still at the very beginning of their agility journey.
An agile organisation is defined by two key features:
- Speed
- Adaptability
Most importantly, both of these features are necessary to keep pace with ever-changing market conditions. Also, these features enable companies to turn strategy, talent, processes and technology towards shifting needs to increase value.
To be able to achieve organisational agility, the strategy should be based on five core pillars:
- Leadership vision
- Structural agility
- Process agility
- Portfolio agility
- Technology architecture
What does an agile enterprise look like?
True agility can be achieved only if all five pillars are present in the organisation’s strategy.
By focussing more on leadership and taking full advantage of a crisis, organisations can perform better in various business metrics. It is key that businesses prioritise time to market over perfection for new solutions.
Agile organisations are not afraid to adopt more advanced use cases and it’s needless to say that agility comes hand in hand with digital maturity.
Read more about the five evolution stages to agility with a detailed guide on how to reach the final stage.