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

233 Pages·2014·2.08 MB·English

by  Setili

Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Preface
The Impetus for This Book
What You Can Gain
A Caveat
How to Get the Most out of This Book
Chapter One: What Is Agility—and Why Is It Valuable?
What Is Agility?
Business Models Are Evolving Fast—with New Winners and New
Losers
What Kind of Companies Need to Be Agile?
What We See in Agile Organizations
Changes in Technology, Culture, and the Economy Are Driving the Need
for Greater Agility
Increase Agility Where It Makes the Most Difference
Where Is Agility Most Important in Your Business?
Notes
Chapter Two: See Through Your Customers' Eyes: How to See What Your
Competitor Can't
Experience What Customers Do, Firsthand
Put Customers to Work
Get out of the Office and into the Field
Give Customers a Reason to Talk, Then Listen In
Encourage the Unexpected
In Conclusion
Notes
Chapter Three: Right Customers, Right Value, Right Time: Identify Your
Most Attractive Customers and Pivot with Them
Your Customers Can Show You the Way
Your Products Can Show You the Way
Segment Customers According to Why They Are Using Your Products
Niches and Microcultures Reveal New Opportunities for Growth
Observe “Outlier” Customers
Continuous Customer Intelligence: Harnessing Data to Gain Up-to-the-
Minute Foresight
Automate Customization
In Conclusion
Notes
Chapter Four: Love the Problem: Dig Deep to Find New Insights
Observe the Customers' Daily Environment, the Tools They Use, and the
People They Interact With
Observe and Interview Customers to Identify Opportunities in Business-
to-Business Markets
Enlist the Customer as Collaborator
Know What Problems You Are Trying to Solve
Understand Your Customers' Hearts, Minds, Habits, and Values
Understand How Your Customers Vary Across Cultures and
Geographies
In Conclusion
Notes
Chapter Five: Turn Trends into Opportunities: Stop Preparing for the Future
and Create It
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 Next
Prioritize and Take Action
What Action Is UPS Taking to Respond to the Changes in Its Business
Environment?
In Conclusion
Notes
Chapter Six: Create Breakthrough Strategies: Generate Creative Alternatives
for Capitalizing on the Changes You See
Why Breakthrough Ideas Are Important
Lessons from AGCO on Developing Breakthrough Strategies
Techniques for Developing Breakthrough Thinking
In Conclusion
Notes
Chapter Seven: Manage Uncertainty: Be Courageous, Anticipate What
Might Happen, and Address Risks Head-On
How Tesla Motors Succeeded, and Managed Risk
Further Thoughts on Managing Risk and Uncertainty
In Conclusion
Notes
Chapter Eight: Turning a Strategic Corner: Take the First Steps, Shed What
Doesn't Fit, Experiment, and Reinforce
Communicate Intent
Take the First Steps
Shed What Doesn't Fit
Build New Capabilities
Experiment and Reinforce
In Conclusion
Notes
Chapter Nine: Agility as a Way of Life: Leverage the Power of Purpose,
Autonomy, and Continuous Adaptation
Create Focus by Paring Your Priorities to the Essential Few
Paint a Picture of the Intended Future
Get the Right People on Board
Set an Example for Employee Behavior
Motivate Through Autonomy and Empowerment
Plan for the Unexpected
Improve and Adapt Continuously
The Importance of a Motivating Purpose
In Conclusion
Notes
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
About the Author
More from Wiley
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Illustrations
Figure 1.1
Figure 1.2
Figure 2.1
Figure 3.1
Figure 3.2
Figure 3.3
Figure 3.4
Figure 4.1
Figure 5.1
Figure 5.2
Figure 5.3
Figure 6.1
Figure 6.2
Figure 7.1
Figure 8.1
Figure 8.2
Figure 8.3
List of Tables
Table 1.1
Table 2.1
Table 2.2
Table 3.1
Table 5.1
Table 6.1
Table 7.1
Table 7.2
Table 7.3
THE AGILITY ADVANTAGE
HOW TO IDENTIFY AND ACT ON
OPPORTUNITIES IN A FAST-CHANGING WORLD
Amanda Setili
Copyright © 2014 by John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
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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
658.4′012— dc23
FIRST EDITION
To Rob, Shannon, and Alison
Preface
In 2011, I founded the Strategic Agility® Think Tank. My goal in establishing
this community of corporate peers—CEOs, division presidents, CFOs, CMOs,
and leaders in sales, marketing, operations, and strategy—was 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 more—and more
varied—experience in helping companies navigate change.
My aim in writing this book is to help all organizations—large, established
companies with huge investments in the status quo, as well as smaller, younger
companies that are relatively light on their feet—become more nimble. In the
pages that follow, you'll find examples, tools, and techniques to do just that.
The Impetus for This Book
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 Walmart—companies 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 did—the hundreds of thousands of employees, the wealth of technology,
and the assets spread across the globe—made 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 trends—the list
goes on and on.
In engagement after engagement, I helped my clients deal with the same basic