book

The Agility Advantage

by Amanda Setili

September 2014

Intermediate to advanced

256 pages

5h 40m

English

Jossey-Bass

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The Impetus for This BookWhat You Can GainA CaveatHow to Get the Most out of This Book
What Is Agility?Business Models Are Evolving Fast—with New Winners and New LosersWhat Kind of Companies Need to Be Agile?What We See in Agile OrganizationsChanges in Technology, Culture, and the Economy Are Driving the Need for Greater AgilityIncrease Agility Where It Makes the Most DifferenceWhere Is Agility Most Important in Your Business?Notes
Experience What Customers Do, FirsthandPut Customers to WorkGet out of the Office and into the FieldGive Customers a Reason to Talk, Then Listen InEncourage the UnexpectedIn ConclusionNotes
Your Customers Can Show You the WayYour Products Can Show You the WaySegment Customers According to Why They Are Using Your ProductsNiches and Microcultures Reveal New Opportunities for GrowthObserve “Outlier” CustomersContinuous Customer Intelligence: Harnessing Data to Gain Up-to-the-Minute ForesightAutomate CustomizationIn ConclusionNotes
Observe the Customers' Daily Environment, the Tools They Use, and the People They Interact WithObserve and Interview Customers to Identify Opportunities in Business-to-Business MarketsEnlist the Customer as CollaboratorKnow What Problems You Are Trying to SolveUnderstand Your Customers' Hearts, Minds, Habits, and ValuesUnderstand How Your Customers Vary Across Cultures and GeographiesIn ConclusionNotes
How Can We Best Assess and Respond to Market Change?What Types of Market Change Do We Need to Be Concerned About?How Can We Best Identify and Prioritize the Marketplace Changes That May Affect Our Business?Anticipate What Might Happen NextPrioritize and Take ActionWhat Action Is UPS Taking to Respond to the Changes in Its Business Environment?In ConclusionNotes
Why Breakthrough Ideas Are ImportantLessons from AGCO on Developing Breakthrough StrategiesTechniques for Developing Breakthrough ThinkingIn ConclusionNotes

How Tesla Motors Succeeded, and Managed RiskFurther Thoughts on Managing Risk and UncertaintyIn ConclusionNotes
Communicate IntentTake the First StepsShed What Doesn't FitBuild New CapabilitiesExperiment and ReinforceIn ConclusionNotes
Create Focus by Paring Your Priorities to the Essential FewPaint a Picture of the Intended FutureGet the Right People on BoardSet an Example for Employee BehaviorMotivate Through Autonomy and EmpowermentPlan for the UnexpectedImprove and Adapt ContinuouslyThe Importance of a Motivating PurposeIn ConclusionNotes

Overview

How to win market leadership in a fast-changing world

In the past, companies could pick a strategy and stick with it, maintaining a competitive edge for years. But today, companies surge ahead, fall behind, or even disappear in mere months. If you and your company are going to thrive for the long run, you need to continuously evolve, change, and stay a step ahead of your competition.

The ability to see and capitalize on new opportunities is the cornerstone of agility. Successful technology-based firms like Google, Tesla, and Amazon have all mastered agility within their core business practices, but companies in any sector can—and must—learn to spot new opportunities and make the right choices about what to invest in, what to change, and what to abandon.

The Agility Advantage first shows how to identify those aspects of your business where agility is most crucial—where the business environment is changing fast—and which elements have the greatest impact on the customer’s decision to buy. Amanda Setili then shows how to master the three components of agility:

Market agility: Gain ideas from your most demanding and forward-thinking customers and from outside your industry. Engage, observe, and mix with customers to identify the opportunities created by their changing demands.
Decision agility: Anticipate the changes that may affect you and turn even troubling trends into opportunities. Design your strategy to maximize learning and to manage risk. Generate diverse alternatives and make fast, fact-based decisions about which to pursue.
Execution agility: Build new capabilities, shed what doesn’t fit, and take the first steps in a new direction. Experiment, then reinforce and build on what works. Enlist and inspire your organization around a compelling purpose and grant employees the autonomy and resources to continuously adapt and adjust course.

The future will present more opportunities but narrower windows to capture them. With a wealth of valuable information and practical strategies, The Agility Advantage is essential reading to help any organization adapt and thrive—both today and tomorrow.