Being able to predict market changes, meet customer needs, and deliver value that sets you apart from competitors is what business agility is all about. In today’s digital age, it’s essential for companies to embrace agility in order to leverage technology, drive innovation, and achieve sustainable success. By businesses embracing change, empowering their people, and harnessing digital technologies, businesses can turn disruption into opportunity and shape the future they desire.

In this article, I’ll first look at what Business Agility means in this age of digital disruption. Next, I’ll focus on past examples where agility was the key to success in dynamic situations involving rapid technology transformations. Also leveraging the wisdom of these past agile endeavors, I’ll provide an example of how business agility works within a rapid decision cycle. Lastly, I’ll detail specific reasons why business agility is critical in this age of digital change.

1. Business Agility: Empowering Organizations to Navigate Change through Agile Decision-Making.

Business agility refers to an organization’s ability to rapidly respond to change, navigate ambiguity, and continuously deliver value. It’s about being proactive rather than reactive. Indeed, this mindset and set of practices enable businesses to thrive in an ever-changing environment. Most importantly, business agility offers a modern alternative to the traditional 20th-century organizational thinking. Namely, industrial-era thinking that prioritized reliability and efficiency over agility and speed. So to define Business Agility in this context, below is a brief definition:

“[Business Agility] … is the ability of an organization to rapidly adapt to market and environmental changes in productive and cost-effective ways”

Wikipedia

For more references on the concept of Business Agility, see Scaled Agile’s article, Business Agility and John P. Kotter’s article, Accelerate!. Also, see IMD’s article, What is business agility & why is it important?  Here, IMD details why business decision-makers need to adopt flexible and iterative approaches to running their businesses in this day and age. 

“The organizations we created in the 20th century were designed much more for reliability and efficiency than for agility and speed.”  

John P. Kotter, Accelerate

2. Examples of Agility’s Triumph Within Past Tech Transformations: A Parallel to our Current Business Climate of Rapid Digital Convergence.

Now that I have highlighted that Business Agility is an approach to navigating change, let’s look back at history for a moment. Indeed, organizations using new technologies in changing environments is not new. Throughout the past, people and organizations have used agility to adapt to new technological advancements. Specifically, examples of agility succeeding have included military operations, lean manufacturing, Agile software development, and IT SaaS offerings. Also, agility is crucial today for businesses in this era of rapid digital change. Indeed, businesses must adopt agile practices to survive. Below, I’ll share recent examples of tech transformations that demonstrate how agility helped organizations to navigate change and leverage new technologies for success.

Examples of Organizations Using Agility to Adapt to New Tech

a. Lean Manufacturing: Focused on Reducing Cycle Time, Feedback Loops, Continuous Improvement. 

In the post-war boom of the 50’s and 60’s Toyota perfected an innovative methodology called the Toyota Production System. This approach focused on minimizing waste in manufacturing while simultaneously maximizing productivity. Here Toyota succeeded in a dynamic era of great expansion of markets, consumers desiring more variety and advances in manufacturing technologies. In particular, this methodology has many agile characteristics. This included reducing cycle times and continuous improvement. For more on lean manufacturing agility, see QAD’s Taiichi Ohno: Hero of the Toyota Production System. Also, see Tim Darling’s article, Strategy and Agility: Lessons from Toyota, Honda, Yamaha, and Tesla. 

b. OODA Loop: Agile Military Decision-Making – Observe, Orient, Decide, Action.

In the 1990’s the OODA (Observe, Orient, Decide, Action) Loop doctrine was formulated within the U.S. military. It was inspired by jet fighter pilot dogfight tactics, addressing a dire need for agility within the military. Indeed, rapid technology advances at the time had increased aircraft speed, but it did not assure success in battle. This is because jet pilots were finding that agile decision-making was a better tactic than just aircraft speed.

Hence, the OODA Loop military framework was developed. This doctrine emphasized rapid decision-making and action. Positively, the OODA Loop is a prime example of agility harnessing new technologies. Further, it enabled, not just fighter pilots, but also military organizations to outmaneuver adversaries and gain a competitive edge in dynamic environments. For more information on this operational concept and how it applies to business, see this article, The Forgotten OODA Loop: It’s An Amazing Military Decision Framework And Awesome Gift To Business.

c. Agile Software Development: Speed, Collaboration, Continuous Delivery to End Customer.

Agile Software Development is another example of agility becoming the winning strategy in a dynamic environment involving rapid advances in software technology. Specifically, this agile approach was formalized in 2001 with the Agile Manifesto. Here, software developers identified a winning strategy for delivering software applications and updates. Indeed, instead of using traditional, long-drawn out “waterfall” methods to develop software, developers started using an Agile approach. Agile software sevelopment focused on speed, collaboration, and continuous delivery. Today, most software companies have embraced these practices to rapidly innovate, deliver value to customers, and outmaneuver slower-moving competitors. For more on Agile software sevelopment, see opentext’s article, What is Agile Development?

“Agility is the ability to adapt and respond to change … agile organizations view change as an opportunity, not a threat.”

Jim Highsmith

d. IT DevOps: Collaboration of IT Development and Operations Teams For Accelerated Software Delivery.

DevOps is a process methodology where Agile software development teams work in concert with IT operations teams. By doing this, they can leverage more automation and enable fast, continuous software delivery. The DevOps movement began around 2007 as a way to do away with functional silos within IT organizations by adopting an agile, continuous process for software delivery. To detail, this agile process consists of the following steps: Plan, Build, Test, Deploy, Operate, Observe, Continuous Feedback, and Discover. As you may notice, this agile, operational process is similar to previous approaches for leveraging technology in dynamic environments such as the OODA Loop for military operations. For more details on DevOps, see Atlassian’s article, What Is DevOps?

Summary and More References on Agility Thriving Within Past Tech Transformations.

So, recent history shows numerous instances where agility is crucial for thriving in a constantly evolving competitive landscape amid technological changes. Further, these examples provide continuity and valuable lessons that are highly relevant to modern businesses navigating digitalization. Hence, these examples provide strong evidence that agility is a key success factor in today’s rapidly converging digital environment.  For more references on agility and tech transformations, see Gareth Holebrook’s article, A Brief History of the Progress Towards the Agile Manifesto and Willy-Peter Schaub’s article, Why OODA is one of the DevOps genomes. Also, see SoftServe’s article, DevOps: Strategies from a Fighter Pilot.

3. An Agile Decision Cycle Within a Dynamic Digital Environment: The Way to Disrupt Competitors, Seize Opportunities, and Overcome Obstacles.

To achieve business agility in this age of digitalization, corporate executives’ need to adopt an agile decision cycle. Indeed, this is much like what people and organizations have done in the past as described above. For instance, one of the most versatile, and simplest agile decision cycle frameworks is Col. Boyd’s OODA (Observe, Orient, Decide, Action) Loop. So, I’ll use this agile decision framework to describe each step that a business would go through to practice Business Agility. See below.

Example of a Business Agility Decision Cycle (OODA Loop)

Step 1 – Observe.

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In this step, a business focuses on understanding their business situation. Here, supported by cross-functional, targeted data feeds, executives can keep an eye on trends and anomalies. For instance, decision-makers could use a Business Intelligence (BI) dashboard focused on key performance indicators (KPI). In turn, this BI dashboard could provide alerts triggered by changes and anomalies that would be of interest to decision-makers. 

Step 2 – Orient.

Next, the organization analyzes the information they have gathered in the first step. The intent in this step is to identify patterns and trends. Thus, decision-makers focus on the most critical information and anomalies. From there, they evaluate the reliability of the information. Further in this step, decision requirements may be formulated based on such things as a new executive-level initiative. Lastly, once decision requirements are formulated, there may be a need for a deeper analysis for the decision-makers to gain an appreciation of the problem or opportunity.

Step 3 – Decide.

Here, business leaders make informed decisions. This includes considering multiple options, prioritizing decisions, involving the right stakeholders, and making decisions. Also as part of this step, the decision-maker’s choices need to be put in context of risks and results of past, similar decisions. Lastly, the decision-makers need to fully identify the likely outcomes to include resources needed and any mitigation actions to increase the likelihood of success.

Step 4 – Act.

In this step, the business executes decisions. As this is an organizational setting, business leaders need to communicate clearly, establish clear goals, and monitor progress. Also, this step includes monitoring progress and making changes as appropriate to maximize the success of the decision.

Repeat.

As this is an iterative process, the Business Agility cycle repeats itself over and over again. This loop, when executed effectively, can enable a business to outmaneuver competitors. Specifically, they are more responsive to change, aptly leverage digital technology, and are more aligned with market demands. 

“He who can handle the quickest rate of change survives”

Col. John Boyd

For a more detailed discussion of the OODA decision framework and how businesses can leverage it, see this article, The Forgotten OODA Loop: It’s An Amazing Military Decision Framework And Awesome Gift To Business. Also, for ideas on how systems today can support Business Agility, see my article, An Agile Decision Platform to Empower Executives For Superior Supply Chain Performance: Here Are The Best Attributes.

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4. The Reasons Why Business Agility is the Best Way for Companies to Fully Leverage Digital Technologies and Stay Competitive.

In today’s digital age, business agility is no longer a nice-to-have, but a must-have for companies to fully leverage digital technologies and stay competitive. By becoming more agile, businesses can respond quickly to changing market conditions, deliver continuous value to customers, and drive innovation. Moreover, they can turn data into insights, insights into action, and action into outcomes. By embracing business agility, companies can not only survive, but thrive in an era of rapid change and disruption. 

Top Reasons for Business Agility in this Age of Digitalization

To detail, below are the reasons why companies need to embrace Business Agility to fully leverage digital technologies and stay competitive.

a. Iterative Decision Cycle: Reduces Decision Delays, Faster Business Execution.

By having business agility, decision cycles are both iterative and rapid. Indeed, digital technologies are key for businesses acquiring rapid information. Further, business agility reduces delays by decision-makers not having to wait on perfect information or rely on regularly scheduled meetings. Thus, this leads to faster business execution, as decisions are translated into action quickly, allowing companies to respond rapidly to changing market conditions.

“Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.”

Mark Twain

b. Continuous Feedback: On-going Detecting Changes and Learning from Decisions.

Agile business practices emphasize continuous feedback. This allows companies to address changes and challenges as they arise rather than through periodic reviews. Also, businesses that effectively leverage technology to enhance their agility will thrive. Furthermore, this ongoing learning from decisions aided by information technology allows organizations to refine their approaches proactively instead of rediscovering issues later.

“Agile teams produce a continuous stream of value, at a sustainable pace, while adapting to the changing needs of the business.”

Elisabeth Hendrickson

c. Focused on Big Picture and Anomalies: Leverage Tech to Observe Situational Changes, Both Physical and Digital.

An agile approach focuses on the big picture and anomalies. This also precludes decision-makers losing focus, resulting in information overload. Also by leveraging digital technologies, decision-makers can observe situational changes across both their physical and digital domains. Thus, organizations can monitor trends, identify outliers, and respond to shifts in the market, customer behavior, or competitive landscape.

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d. Exploits Data Analytics: Directs Tech to Make Sense of Data, Confirm Challenges and Opportunities.

Agile organizations exploit data analytics to make sense of the vast amounts of data at their disposal, confirming suspected challenges and uncovering new opportunities. By leveraging technology to analyze data, companies can gain actionable insights that enables informed decision-making and drives business outcomes.

e. Aligns Tech to Business Decision-Making: Agile Decision Intelligence Vs Business Automation.

Business agility ensures technology is aligned with business decision-making. This enables business leaders to leverage agile decision intelligence analytics, and not just use information technology for automating business processes. Further, this means Decision Intelligence technologies support and enhance human decision-making, not just automate human processes.

“The important thing is not your process. The important thing is your process for improving your process.”

Henrik Kniberg

f. Maximizes the Success of Decision Execution: Leverage Tech for Organizational Communications, Readiness, and Adapting to Changes

Agile organizations that leverage technology can optimize decision execution. By using tech for clear communication and keeping everyone informed and prepared for unforeseen circumstances, businesses can adapt quickly to changes. Also, this enables companies to implement decisions effectively, address unexpected issues, and refine their approaches continuously based on new information or knowledge.

“Innovation is key. Only those who have the agility to change with the market and innovate quickly will survive.”

Robert Kiyosaki

Conclusion and More References.

Positively, there is a strong business case for organizations to be agile. Indeed with the rapid convergence of our digital and physical worlds, business agility is a must to outwit competitors, seize opportunities, overcome obstacles, and delight our customers. 

For more information on the OODA Loop and its application to businesses, see these articles, The Thrilling OODA Loop: The Way To Shatter Your Competitor’s Decision Cycle And More Breakthrough Concepts, Alex Circei’s article, How Great Engineering Managers Identify and Respond to Challenges – the OODA Loop Model, and Joseph Paris’s article, OODA and Agility; Reaching a Conclusion Faster.

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