Agility for Your People, Processes and Technology

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Nothing is more crucial to a business than stability. Yes, profit matters, but companies can achieve consistent profits easily when markets are stable.

The world, of course, doesn’t always work this way. Markets are highly unpredictable and things change in the blink of an eye. If your business’s viability is dependent on the marketplace, which is almost always the case, you must be prepared to face the challenges of trying to maintain a smooth path through a changing landscape.

Businesses that survive and thrive under any circumstances share one trait: they are agile. When faced with a challenge, an agile business, like a skilled soccer player, knows when to decelerate, accelerate and turn. Agility can help organizations adapt to changes in the market and changes within the company.

Things to Avoid While Practicing Organizational Agility

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Even though it’s no secret that small to medium-sized businesses often have vastly fewer resources in comparison to larger enterprises, prioritizing agility is just as critical for their survival. This is because, in today’s world, where a variety of unpleasant surprises can arise at any time, you must be well prepared to avoid becoming overwhelmed. Recent events, such as the pandemic, supply chain issues, war, inflation and The Great Resignation, serve as explicit indicators of why your SMB needs to be agile.

When the needs of your customers, employees, the market, the economy and other factors change, agile businesses can adapt quickly and keep working toward their business goals. To be agile, you must have systems in place that allow you to respond quickly to rapidly changing conditions and opportunities by preparing your people, processes and technologies.

However, agility doesn’t happen overnight. You will encounter setbacks that can make your agility journey a bumpy ride. Knowing that is the first step towards business agility.

Making the Case for SMB Agility

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The last two years have been a bumpy ride for organizations of all sizes globally. During this time, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) were hit the worst. Since most SMBs have limited cash and resources, setbacks were much more severe for them than for big corporations with more resources.

Irrespective of whether your company had to completely shut down during the COVID-19 lockdowns or whether it had to create a touchless customer experience or transition to a remote workforce overnight, you may have had so much more at stake than the average business.

Whether you’re facing a global pandemic or something as simple as shifting market conditions, if you want to survive and reach your business objectives, you must improve your organization’s speed, adaptability and innovation. To do that, an SMB like yours requires even more business agility.

What is Organizational Agility?

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It’s hard to predict the future. Just think of all that has happened in the world in the last two years. From the COVID-19 pandemic to supply chain issues to inflation and war, no one could have predicted these events early enough to be adequately prepared.

These challenges make it more difficult for companies to succeed and achieve their long-term objectives.

When the needs of your employees, customers and the market change suddenly, you must be ready to make the necessary shift. Proactive small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) can achieve this by practicing organizational agility.