Whether your business is a big corporate, a vast multinational, a small start-up or a one-person show, your survival and success depend on your ability to adapt quickly and decisively to challenges in the business environment.

In today’s business environment, change will come at you from all directions. It could be a disruptive technology, a game-changing set of new regulations, or even a twist or turn in consumer demands.

The key to adapting, Zidel says, is understanding what your customer needs and wants. ‘Business today is more about the customer experience than the product itself,’ he explains. ‘Two companies could offer the same product, but the one that provides the better customer experience is the one that will win the business. Agility is adapting and doing that.’

When agility gets personal

Ian Mann, a partner in Gateways Business Consultants who specialises in strategy and leadership, says that business agility comes at two levels. ‘There’s the agility of the individual and the agility of the organisational structure,’ he says. ‘You often find people who are very comfortable with change who work at large organisations where the organisation itself prevents them from being agile. When agile people work at a company that’s not agile, nothing will happen. If you pit a person against a system, the system always wins.’

On the other hand, Mann says, if you take someone who is not agile or not fit for change and put that person in a company that is designed for change, ‘you’ll be astounded at how quickly they change – even if the person’s normal practice is not to change easily’.

However, he adds that the real focus should be on getting an organisation to be more agile. ‘Once you’ve accomplished that, you can look at its people.’

Too big to change?

Agility implies speed, nimbleness, mobility – characteristics many associate with small businesses and start-ups, not big corporates. As Old Mutual’s GM of Operations, Hugh Hacking, says, start-ups are like nippy speedboats while larger companies often are like aircraft carriers that take ages to change course.

So, why are start-ups typically more agile? Why can’t big businesses be quicker to react?

It’s all about risk, says Angela du Plessis, also a partner at Gateway Business Consultants and a specialist in relationships at senior company level. ‘Start-ups are high risk-takers and can make quick decisions that don’t always have the best outcomes,’ she says, while large organisations typically have to be more risk averse.

‘Larger organisations try to minimise risk, which is why things go through so many processes. They also have compliance and governance requirements.’ Though corporate governance provides important guidelines and control mechanisms, Du Plessis says they also have a downside: ‘If you look at regulations and guidelines like Basel II and the King Report on Corporate Governance, big businesses are hamstrung.’

Other obstacles bigger companies often face are processes, management structures and administration. ‘I think some people at large multinationals do more reporting than actual work, which I know is a source of huge frustration for them,’ Du Plessis notes.

‘As a whole, a corporate may be too big to be agile,’ says Zidel. ‘But in every organisation there are a whole lot of smaller elements, and you can adapt those smaller parts. The bigger the company, the longer it will take, but it’s about having a vision that everybody can see and communicating that vision.’

Whether it’s an individual or a large organisation, change – and being agile enough to react to that change – often is a difficult process. Again, Zidel believes that there is a solution and illustrates it with something he heard years ago: ‘The only person who likes change is a baby with a wet nappy.’

The reason the baby wants to change is, of course, because it’s uncomfortable. It’s the same with a business, says Zidel. ‘If you want to promote change, you have to demonstrate that you’re going somewhere that will be better than where you are at the moment.’

Given our fast-changing business environment, it’s essential to also show that you can get there quickly.

What agility means to … the financial-services provider

‘Sometimes it’s more important to get it right than to be quick. While being agile is a virtue, it’s not always a necessity,’ says Malusi Ndlovu, General Manager at Old Mutual Corporate Consultants.

‘I often see this when companies are designing fundamental architecture like mainframes or IT systems. If you get it right, you’ll have a platform that will allow you to be agile later. If you get it wrong, you’ll create rigidity, making it more difficult to be agile.

‘Agility is important when speed is of the essence. It’s about achieving results in the quickest or most efficient way possible. There are two parts to that. First, there should be close engagement with the customer or end user, so that they’re consulted from the beginning and right through the process, not just at the end. Secondly, people have to be empowered so that decisions will actually be made.

‘We live in a very fast-paced world and the pace of change will only accelerate. People and organisations across the board will have to become much more “change fit”. When there’s a change, it’s very easy to freeze like a deer caught in headlights or to panic and think, “I have to do something.” Being agile means being able to deal with the changes that come at you while knowing that you don’t always have to do or change something.

‘When it comes to long-term decision-making in particular, you need a strategic framework to help you decide how to respond. The trick then lies in knowing when something falls outside that framework and reacting appropriately. It’s about saying, “This is happening, but it’s within our risk appetite and our business strategy and we don’t need to do anything” versus “Now it’s time to throw out the rule book”. In many instances, people throw out the rule book when they don’t have to.

‘We also tend to move slowly and cautiously when we are unsure of our environment, or when there is a high degree of perceived risk. For instance, running a pension fund is not part of most corporates’ core business and they tend to be overly cautious, taking a long time to make sure that they fully understand all the options before deciding. Empowering outside partners to make such decisions would make them much more agile.’

What agility means to … the listed corporate

‘Agility has two pillars. The first is speed – the ability to execute quickly, to make swift decisions and to add resources and allocate funds faster. The second is the ability to change direction, to continually come up with new ideas and execute them quickly,’ says Jason Goodall, Group CEO at Dimension Data.

‘Achieving both involves relooking your decision-making criteria and having flat rather than hierarchical organisational structures, eliminating bottlenecks and building empowered, often virtual, teams who understand and follow a process and methodology that encourage this kind of thinking.

‘You also should be comfortable operating in an environment where you don’t expect all the information to be available and all the thinking to be done upfront. It’s about focusing on achieving a measurable outcome in the shortest possible time.

‘At Dimension Data, we believe that being agile doesn’t mean that there are no rules or boundaries. We’ve embraced the agile methodology, but we also have discipline, processes and a system in place. You need structure to be agile, otherwise you’ll end up running fast but getting nowhere. I call this approach “structured innovation”.

‘Mindset and culture are important, too. We aim to create a sense of energy and urgency at all levels. It’s not something that is achieved by sending out an email. It requires that leaders and managers communicate effectively, lead by example by making decisions quickly and tackling problems head-on, openly and transparently, and that they always communicate honestly about how things are going.

‘When people see tangible change around them, feel empowered to speak up if something isn’t working and believe they have an important role to play, they’ll be inspired to approach their jobs in a manner that accelerates agility and ultimately enhances a client-centric culture.

‘The secret is ensuring that your people feel that they’re working in an agile environment and creating a sense of fun, activity, energy and excitement in the organisation. Your leadership team has to communicate in a way that supports the philosophy of moving fast, changing direction and executing quickly. They should create a sense of urgency and momentum, set ambitious goals for their teams and celebrate their achievements.

‘It’s also about creating a sense of empowerment and ensuring that your people understand that they have a valuable role to play, that their contributions will be recognised and rewarded, and that they will make a tangible difference.’

What agility means to … the service-delivery sector

‘Whenever you make a change in a business, it’s important to articulate clearly what you want to achieve – not how you want to achieve it,’ says Hugh Hacking, GM Operations, Old Mutual Corporate.

‘During Old Mutual’s managed separation, we were clear on what the endgame was and engaged our best people to work together to craft solutions to problems as they arose.

‘Obviously many different challenges came up along the way. There were regulatory issues that had to be addressed, shareholder questions, legal complexities and a swathe of other matters. Because we had tasked multidisciplinary teams to handle them, Old Mutual could cross all the hurdles that cropped up quickly.

‘That’s what agility is – put simply, it’s the ability to respond quickly and efficiently to changes in the environment. Whenever I talk about agility in a business context, I use the analogy of boats. There’s a huge advantage to having a very big ship that can sail through rough seas and withstand storms. A big company is the same. It has the resilience to weather storms, which smaller companies often don’t have. But big ships are not very maneuverable whereas a small yacht can zip around a bay and change tack in an instant.

‘A business has to adopt the best of both worlds. Most big ships have a speedboat or a helicopter on board, and similarly you want to set your company up so that it has a few speedboats that can react quickly when the need arises. In big companies, it’s not about never changing direction, it’s about knowing in which areas you have to be agile and in which you don’t, and making sure that those that have to react quickly can do so.

‘In many cases, it’s not even certain areas of the business that have to be identified; it’s certain types of decisions. Some decisions will bankrupt you if you get them wrong, but others won’t. It’s important to know which is which. Decisions that won’t bankrupt the business and won’t have a long-term effect on its health have to be made quickly so that it can move forward as quickly as possible.’

What agility means to … the social entrepreneur

‘Agility means being able to anticipate and being able to respond as opposed to reacting,’ says Wendy Luhabe, women’s economic-empowerment pioneer, founder of the Women Private Equity Fund and chair of the African Leadership University.

‘To some people, agility comes naturally; to others, it can be taught by giving them opportunities to practise it, leading by example and rewarding those who show agility. People will generally develop behaviours that are valued in a certain context,’ she says.

‘In fact, in my view, the real power lies in shaping the agenda instead of responding or reacting to a changing environment.

‘I think that our entire decision-making culture in organisations needs an overhaul. The assumption that the only people who can make decisions are the ones who are higher up in an organisation is a major blind spot.

‘I think that decisions should be made closer to where the challenges

are. The notion of asking someone who is far removed from a problem to come up with a solution to it does not serve us and wastes time.

‘Someone once told me the story of a hotel security guard who was empowered to offer guests a free night’s stay if they were not satisfied with their experience. That, to me, is an interesting example of what agility is.

‘All organisations have to innovate constantly and remain relevant and useful.

‘In my world – which focuses on the economic empowerment of women – we have to continuously identify innovative ways women could participate.

‘At one level, women have unprecedented opportunities to become game changers; at another, women are better placed to make quick decisions because they are not encumbered by a culture of red tape and bureaucracy.

‘Women are generally agile by nature because of the many things we have to deal with in our lives every day.

‘Agility is therefore a skill we develop by multitasking every day, and in that way it comes from experience. So, if organisations are looking for agility, they should appoint more women at decision-making level.

‘Agility teaches us to be present. It does not rely on past experience. It requires that we decode what is needed and have the courage to provide a solution on the spot.’

This article originally appeared in MiNDSPACE issue 2 2018 magazine. To read the full issue, click here.