Business Agility

What Does Agile Mean in Business?

Business agility is a company’s ability to adapt to a changing situation while still maintaining its vision. While many conflate the idea of business agility with an agile organization framework, these two concepts are not necessarily the same.

The former rests on the principle that a business should embrace a culture of change and disruption without losing focus or productivity. The latter refers to using short development and feedback cycles (called “sprints”) to quickly and frequently improve products.

Whether you use an agile organization framework or not, business agility is essential for keeping your company around for the long haul.

What Are the Benefits of Business Agility?

When your business is truly agile, you can:

• Stay Competitive: By leveraging market research and real-time data and feedback, your team can quickly pivot and take strategic action before your competitors do.
• Quickly Adapt: By embracing constant change and iteration, your company can leave behind cumbersome, bureaucratic processes and provide the products and services customers really want.
• Improve Cross-Functional Teamwork: Sharing information and responsibilities between departments can foster greater engagement, innovation, and creative problem-solving.

An Example of Business Agility

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, The Walt Disney Company experienced a significant drop in traffic to its stores, theme parks, and cruise ships. In response, the company pivoted by moving more resources to its Disney+ streaming service for consumers to safely enjoy at home.

Disney was earlier to market than some competitors, such as HBO Max. The company quickly released several popular movies and shows through the platform. As a result, Disney+ reached over 100 million subscribers just 16 months after its launch and has, at times, outperformed competitors and gained significant market share.

How to Become More Agile in Business

Agility in business is crucial if you want to stay ahead of the competition and meet customers’ high expectations. If you’re not sure where to start, here are two key ways to make your company more agile:

Focus on People

Although agile businesses still need streamlined processes to succeed, it’s more important to build a culture where employees embrace constant change and innovation.

For agile principles to work, your employees must be willing to leave the perceived safety of traditional business models behind and take calculated risks.

Start with Learning

Today’s business landscape changes quickly. Consequently, both leadership and employees must be willing to keep learning and discovering new solutions and business methods.

Running an agile business requires looking at constantly shifting data, market research, and customer feedback in order to strategically respond. When your team is committed to continuous learning, your organization will be more prepared to take on new challenges and opportunities.