Domains of Business Agility

Domains of Business Agility » Responsive Customer-Centricity

Companies can no longer afford to take a “wait and see” approach when it comes to imminent change. Technology, market, and customer trends appear rapidly, showing up as challenges or opportunities depending on your perspective.

Today, companies need to proactively scan for emerging patterns and sense trends that may add up to significant change — even disruption. This is not a job for a few corporate folks secluded in an ivory tower. Sensing change and noticing patterns is a job for many, at all organizational levels. It requires you to continuously cast a wide net in order to intuitively recognize shifts and make bold leaps.

Primary Behaviors

The following 3 behaviors strongly contribute to the ability to sense & respond proactively.

B07: Leaders proactively identify and track emerging patterns and trends: Leaders regularly scan the market for patterns and trends (technology, market, regulatory, etc) that may affect business today or provide emerging opportunities tomorrow. These identification and tracking activities leverage the power of many people, rather than depending on a few experts.

B08: Leaders define strategic outcomes in ways that give teams the space to pursue innovative and potentially unforeseen solutions: Leaders describe desired outcomes or strategic results with just enough detail for teams to understand the necessary constraints, while allowing the teams as much flexibility as possible to discover new solutions.

B09: Everyone anticipates change and views it as a strategic advantage: Change is not seen as something to control, limit, and, if possible, avoid. Change is seen as an inevitable characteristic of business, and that positive opportunity often lies in change. Working to develop the capability to use change to catalyze new ways of serving existing (or new) customers is a shared perspective throughout the organization.