The world is changing very fast. As a result, companies of all sizes are struggling to stay relevant in the eyes of their customers. They are better informed and have higher expectations than ever before, with Business Agility.
In short, Business Agility is an organization’s ability and willingness to adapt, create and leverage change for the benefit of its customers.
Recognizing the need for change is vital to sustained business performance, but having the ability to change at the right time and achieve intended results is even more valuable. Even more in the current scenario, where technological products are launched daily.
In this article, you will find out some of the best ideas to create a great performance with Business agility in your company in the digital era.
Business agility: consumer relationship and digital transformation
We are all consumers, and if before what satisfied us was just a quality product, today’s experience is a very important value when choosing a product or service.
All this is because of the comfort that many applications offer, making our lives more agile, flexible and transforming the consumer relationship.
It is no different in the business world. Leaders and managers need to add this mindset to the company’s day-to-day activities. Whether for internal or external audiences, companies that advance in this regard can be considered as part of the business agility model.
In the coming years, when growth levels normalize, the competitive environment will be fierce and many e-commerce operations will struggle to survive.
With an increasingly demanding customer, increased external competition, and technological changes, only those who can adapt quickly will be able to consistently succeed. It’s the new imperative: evolve quickly or die slowly.
What is and why is business agility important?
In a perfect world, every business would have stability at all times. It didn’t matter what was happening in the world or how markets were changing; all companies would be able to support the flow of operations.
Unfortunately, however, that’s not the case — as we saw especially in 2020 with COVID-19 wreaking havoc on the global economy. Those who managed to weather the storm had to make adjustments to their business processes to accommodate business needs along with the changing environment.
Business agility is a way for organizations to remain agile during market fluctuations, regardless of their business model. It’s not a crystal ball with a vision of the future, but it’s as close as you can get to it.
Using systems and trends to calculate and estimate the probability of what’s to come is always an option, but with the number of variables in play, these equations are far from perfect. Market volatility is not always predictable—another lesson taught by the coronavirus pandemic.
That’s why truly strategic and efficient business plans must always take into account that things can change at any time. That means having a plan that allows the company to adapt quickly to survive disruptions.
Business Agility Foundation: The Agile Method
The story of business agility as a concept begins with software development. The agile methodology was created to address problems caused by changing an application’s requirements during its development.
It introduced a new development model in contrast to the traditional waterfall model, which did not allow for adapting an application during its construction stages. The result was often a final product out of line with customer expectations.
With the agile methodology, however, a new framework was developed, allowing teams to take advantage of ever-changing project environments.
Likewise, business agility is designed to enable organizations to innovate and deliver products or services more effectively. It turns market disruption into a competitive advantage while thriving in complex environments.
An organization that has achieved business agility can adapt its structures to deliver products or services quickly, innovate beyond market changes. And develop leaders who can effectively support it all, even in large, complex companies.
Business agility, therefore, can be summarized in four pillars:
- Organizational and cultural adaptation;
- Leadership through complexity;
- Fast delivery and responsiveness;
- Innovation and disruption.
Adaptability in delivery speed
It is normal for agility to be strictly confused with the speed of delivery. Agility is much more akin to the power to adapt to a situation. Being agile is answering this question with as little value as possible.
Traditional organizations are built around a static, siled structural hierarchy, while agile ones are characterized as a network of teams that operate in rapid cycles of learning and decision-making.
Traditional organizations place their governance bodies at the apex and decision rights flow through the hierarchy. On the other hand, agile ones instigate a common purpose and use new data to give decision rights to the teams closest to the information.
How to be Business Agility?
Innovation
First, there must be a favorable culture to make innovative ideas and projects take shape because if the company is Business Agility it means that it is innovative. Likewise, there needs to be an aligned team and resources to make innovative ideas and projects take shape.
Business
The company’s business has to expand in the same field or to other fields where they have a market and opportunities. And that quickly and quickly, of course.
In short, these are great innovative ideas you can apply as a new business and that strengthen and generate a greater competitive advantage for the company.
Marketing
Understand that Agile Marketing prioritizes the customer. In advertisements, the customer must be the center of attention and your product a supporting role that enhances what he has good or what he wants to have.
Sales
The sales area must be agile in the sense of knowing, understanding the journey, gaining trust, being a reference, and having a partnership with the customer. Selling and turning your back or selling and not having a relationship doesn’t work anymore.
HR
If the human resources area does not follow the agile mentality, a request for a new employee to the team can be bureaucratic and time-consuming.
As well as, it is necessary to know agility to properly make the selection for hiring new talents who already adapt to this methodology for all areas of the company, not just IT,
IT
This area is the one that is most involved with agile in most companies, as agile emerged from it.
The 10 Benefits of Business Agility
Business agility is a methodology that aims to work in an agile, adaptable, and flexible way. Betting on short-term planning to achieve goals faster. Developing the ability to adapt naturally to change and avoiding intuitive risks.
Which ends up impacting the company’s results positively. The organizational culture needs to think in an agile way. In other words, thinking has to be part of the company’s culture.
Collaboration and communication
The company’s culture needs some focus on this mindset. If it doesn’t embrace the idea, the planning doesn’t start from scratch. Leadership coupled with strategic internal communication are crucial factors in propagating business agility.
Better ways to work
Revisit good practices, and adapting to what the world demands are fundamental to making the environment a collaborative and inspiring place. Focus on what people need: agility and less bureaucracy. Also, more accessible systems, quality of everyday life, and the opportunity to be creative.
Market speed
If before the companies that chose employees, today, the dynamic has reversed. Top talent decides where to share their knowledge. This movement involves speed in everyday activities. A delay in returning the vacancy or, quoting another sector such as supplier-related purchasing, is enough for the company to lose business or talent.
Customer satisfaction
The search for experience is the market trend, this helps a lot the company’s brand, as many actions end up adding value to the product. Use technology to your advantage, but always favor the customer.
Ownership Liability
The sense of belonging and the responsibility for autonomy are pillars that are dear to human beings. The important thing here is to empower and share knowledge.
Agile mindset
The organization gains a lot from having this as a pillar in its structure. Encouraged and empowered employees produce better. All company actions need to be with that reasonable thinking.
Adaptive leadership
The leader’s profile has also changed in recent years. The concept of reference in companies requires an empathetic, strategic, and resilient professional. If one of the actions of business agility is to provide greater adaptation to change, leaders need to have that too.
Motivation
The results appear more frequently, with that, recognition for the work. This directly impacts the motivation of employees, they can see the meaning of each activity performed during their routine.
Employee Satisfaction
It is a consequence of motivation and ends up turning into a positive cycle. A satisfied employee, the job yields more, in addition to marketing when commenting about the company to friends, family, etc. A positive point is ensuring talent within the company.
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