Are you Agile enough to start 2021 with a “BANG!”?
“New Year” Photo by Nagatoshi Shimamura on Unsplash
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The biggest downfall for most of our organisations during this recession was being too set in our ways to adapt an Agile approach. Our collective failure to prepare was akin to placing a heavy bet on continued stability. We were too complacent to see that the world around us was already changing, and with it, its newer demands. We must understand – and quickly – that our strategies and traditions were very likely made for another time. Now is the time for Agility.
Yesterday’s game was largely about consistency and incremental growth; today’s is about adaptation and transformation. Agile organisations understand this and have already gotten a running start ahead of everyone else. Those who have embraced agility early moved their budgets toward digital and social, away from out of home and print. Those who moved fastest got the best deals on raw materials before the competition ramped up. You could gather as many senior specialists with as much experience as possible to inform a long-term plan – only to find weeks later the world has changed.
According to a recent study conducted by Deloitte, there will be 7 business trends that will take over 2021. The specific top trends identified by the report shared in common, said Deloitte, “breaking out of our often-defensive mindsets to more holistically — and authentically — meet human needs.”
1. Purpose: Companies which know why they serve their stakeholders are uniquely positioned to navigate unprecedented change.”
2. Agility: Successful marketers will be those who invest in agile marketing strategies
3. Human connections: Making authentic connections is now more important than speed-to-market or efficiency.
4. Trust: Trust arises when what is promised is what is delivered. Messaging should be transparent and delivering on those messages should be consistent and reliable
5. Participation: Customer engagement at a deeper level, going beyond passive responses to activities like writing online reviews, giving advice to fellow customers, joining conversations and creating content relevant to the brand.
6. Fusion: This trend recognizes the power of innovative business partnerships. When innovative Agile companies work together to create a whole new level of customer experience, it will pave the way and set the standard for other non-agile companies to follow.
7. Talent transformation: Marketing teams need to develop new talent models to differentiate themselves in a rapidly evolving digital environment.
If there is a silver lining to this recession, it may be the spike in innovation that has resulted. Spurred by urgent customer needs, companies are breaking traditional bureaucratic procedures and expediting delivery of essential products and services. Things may not have been going as most companies have planned, but it certainly is working in their favour moving forward. I imagine that once this crisis has passed, organisations that have built an agile business system will have the flexibility, speed, and decision-making skills to thrive, whatever the future looks like.
“Camouflage” Photo by Kris Mikael Krister on Unsplash
All these trends mentioned above revolve around a single one – Agility. I have been a strong advocate of Agility myself because I believe that it is through Agility that we will recover from these turbulent times. Organisations must be willing to adapt to this kind of business strategy to thrive in 2021. Grant Horton has published an article that mentions the 6 moves that should be implemented to inject some much-needed agility in your business:
o Use up-to-date forecasts to inform decisions - Tying yourself to outdated estimates leaves you powerless to meet new challenges, or properly exploit new opportunities.
o Throw out your 2019 strategy and make an agile 2021 strategy - Focus on what is in front of you, develop a bold strategy to capture the available markets as best you can, work to fill in your blind spots, and continue to make adjustments wherever necessary.
o Bring in resilient leaders - Today’s organisations need to focus on resiliency at the top, so that forward-thinking leaders can make tough decisions, empower their teams, learn from failures, and identify tech-based solutions from a position of knowledge.
o Focus on your core skills by outsourcing non-core tasks - Outsourcing lets you keep your overhead low and your attention entirely devoted to the main business of your company: Adapting your products and services to the current moment, expanding your customer base, seeking out new investors, and responding quickly to the needs of the market.
o Make decisions. Stop watching and get off the fence - Technology moves quickly, as do cultural shifts – particularly in our present moment. Knowing when to push forward could make all the difference between a lost opportunity and a direct hit.
o Aim for sustainability in business and society - With unemployment high and many citizens equally anxious about their finances and their health, many do not know where to turn. Kindnesses performed now will be remembered for a long time to come. At the end of the day, you and your business still need to exist and operate within the community that surrounds you.
“Beaver” Photo by Jokanta Dyr on Pixabay
An agile strategy will break the long-term vision in smaller, more adaptable pieces. It keeps the longer-term vision, but breaks long, complex plans and structures down into smaller achievable chunks that can often be accomplished at greater speed. I have always thought of it as chipping away at your long-term goals little by little, until one day you realise that you have accomplished what you set out for your company.
Bill Gates got it right when he said that “success today requires the agility and drive to constantly rethink, reinvigorate, react and re-invent.” Robert Hall, Executive Director of Resilience First, stated that businesses that have learnt this lesson during the first wave of this crisis are already bouncing back better than their competitors. Those that have not need to urgently learn and apply the principles of agility in order to survive and thrive during until the curve flattens.
“Brain” Photo by Pete Linforth on Pixabay
The harsh reality is that your business, in all likelihood, is not agile yet – but it needs to be. Whether it is 2020 or 2021, strategy works best when it is flexible and can adapt to the changing needs of the business and its customers What is really needed is not to be ‘smarter’, but to be more agile. And more and more companies have been exploring, integrating, and applying this into their practices. So, what have you been doing to prepare for the new year?
Work with me – Get in touch here, call 1300 684 669 or email davidw@davidwayne.com.au to discuss options for coaching, workshops or training programs or
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