Setili - The agility advantage : how to identify and act on opportunities in a fast-changing world

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Setili, Amanda, 1959

The agility advantage : how to identify and act on opportunities in a fast-changing world / Amanda Setili. First edition.

pages cm

Inclues bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-118-83638-5 (hardback); ISBN 978-1-118-96444-6 (pdf); ISBN 978-1-118-96443-9 (epub)

1. Strategic planning. 2. Diffusion of innovations. 3. Organizational change. I. Title.

HD30.28.S396 2014

658.4012 dc23

FIRST EDITION

To Rob, Shannon, and Alison

In 2011, I founded the Strategic Agility Think Tank. My goal in establishing this community of corporate peersCEOs, division presidents, CFOs, CMOs, and leaders in sales, marketing, operations, and strategywas for them to share ideas and best practices, better navigate their greatest challenges, and become more adept at seeing and capturing new market opportunities.

The community includes leaders of such companies as AT&T, AutoTrader, Best Buy, Bosch, Cbeyond, Cisco, Costco, Cox Communications, Equifax, Fiserv, Georgia-Pacific, Hilton, Intuit, Kraft, J. M. Huber, MeadWestvaco, Time Warner, UPS, and Xerox. The members of this group have learned from one another, and I've learned from them. Along the way, they have strengthened their organizational and personal performance, and I've gained moreand more variedexperience in helping companies navigate change.

My aim in writing this book is to help all organizationslarge, established companies with huge investments in the status quo, as well as smaller, younger companies that are relatively light on their feetbecome more nimble. In the pages that follow, you'll find examples, tools, and techniques to do just that.

I wrote this book after more than two decades of working with some of the world's leading companies, including Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, The Home Depot, Kimberly-Clark, and Walmartcompanies that are, for the most part, great at what they do. Over the years, they had honed their operations, refined their products, and developed brands recognized worldwide. Planes ran on time, product flowed to store shelves, diaper innovations kept this year's babies drier than last year's. Yet the very things that made these companies so good at what they didthe hundreds of thousands of employees, the wealth of technology, and the assets spread across the globemade it very difficult for them to respond effectively to change.

Change came in many forms for these companies, and from many different directions at once: deregulation, low-cost competitors, disruptive technologies, housing market ups and downs, private-label products, cultural trendsthe list goes on and on.

In engagement after engagement, I helped my clients deal with the same basic question: How do we identify opportunities for growth, avoid threats on the horizon, and take advantage of market transformations to bring more value to customers and achieve a lasting advantage over our competitors?

If your markets are changing, which they almost always are, what can you do to stay ahead? In a word, you cultivate agility. I define agility as the ability to identify new opportunities and capitalize on them quickly. By following the principles, using the tools, and learning from the numerous real-world examples and case studies in this book, you can make your own organization more agileand have change work to your advantage.

In these pages, I'll let you know how you can anticipate change and be prepared for it when it arrives, armed with the repertoire and resources required to deal effectively with what is ahead. You'll learn how to make sound decisions when data is scarce and the future is uncertain; how to navigate, experiment, and motivate when a sharp turn in strategic direction is required; and how to execute in a flexible way, so that you can adjust your course over time as further change occurs.

The companies I showcase in this book each demonstrate traits important for strategic agility. But they don't have it all figured out; no one does. Technological advances, changes in leadership, financial pressures, regulatory changes, and other events will affect theirand yourfuture business success.

The processes and systems you put in place to augment agility sometimes fall by the wayside or become outdated as fortunes change. Many companies are agile at one point in time, but later become rigid and insular. Sears Roebuck showed great agility in the 1950s. It later became one of the most calcified companies in the world, and now has a reputation for being out of touch with the market. Dell pioneered many methods for adapting quickly to market changes; specifically, its just-in-time supply chain innovations and systems for customizing product to meet each individual customer's needs were groundbreaking. However, the company has lost its luster of late. IBM, in contrast, was known as an old-line, hierarchical company, yet has become extremely agile in recent years and transformed itself into a completely different organization than it once was.