STRATEGIC AGILITY IN AN ERA OF DISRUPTION
WHEN REFLECTING on epochs in world history, historians often make reference to an ancient Chinese curse “May you live in interesting times”.
Today, we live in a time characterised by rapid technology transformation, and resulting social and economic disruption.
In its wake, few institutions have remained untouched. The results can be dislocation, upheaval and opportunity. We are on the cusp of the Fourth Industrial Revolution or the Digital Era – a period of massive technological disruptions and of interesting times.
Disruption is coming from unexpected directions outside the industry, not from known competitors. The picture of once-stable intra-industry competition is no more.
In order to survive the onslaught, organisations need to displace typical organisational dynamics and traditional models of top-down management with a more agile way of existing that increases the organisation’s ability to respond rapidly to change.
Assisted by social media and global communications, people can get more informed more quickly and become more involved in subjects that have an impact on almost all aspects of life.
It is predicted that when the world is fully internet enabled, only artificial intelligence will be able to analyse the abundance of data generated. World knowledge will be doubling every 12 hours. For organisations to survive, the rate of learning must be equal to or more than the rate and pace of change.
The world is entering a new age – the Age of Agile. Agile organisations are connecting everyone and everything, everywhere, all the time.
They are capable of delivering instant, intimate, frictionless value on a large scale. They are creating a world in which people, insights and money interact quickly, easily and cheaply. For some firms, the revolution is uplifting and beautiful. For others, it is dark and threatening. Amazon, for example, demonstrated agility. It created some 230 000 jobs since 1994 and intends creating more than 100 000.
Today, the practice of Agile management which includes “lean” and “design thinking” reflects a preoccupation with achieving operational agility – enabling a team, a unit or an enterprise to nimbly adapt and upgrade its products and services to meet rapidly changing technology and customer needs.
The main financial benefits from agile management will flow from the next agile frontier – achieving strategic agility. Strategic agility is important because it’s central to the key business issue of how to make money from Agile. While firms like Nokia, and Blackberry were pursuing operational agility in the mid-2000s by developing better cellphones, Apple exhibited strategic agility by developing a multifunctional device –the iPhone.
Fundamental to everything is recognition that the new way of managing is not a process but a mindset in which the organisation embraces the new principles. This is about “being Agile”, not just “doing Agile”. Paresh Soni is associate director for research at the Graduate School of Business, the Management College of Southern Africa. He writes in his personal capacity.
To survive the onslaught, organisations must find a more agile way that increases their ability to respond rapidly to change