The Agility Advantage : How to Identify and Act on Opportunities in a Fast-Changing World.
Title:
The Agility Advantage : How to Identify and Act on Opportunities in a Fast-Changing World.
Author:
Setili, Amanda.
ISBN:
9781118964446
Personal Author:
Edition:
1st ed.
Physical Description:
1 online resource (259 pages)
Contents:
Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface -- Chapter 1 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 -- Globalization -- Microcultures -- Collaboration -- Technology Changes -- Transparency and Customer Power -- Commoditization -- Increase Agility Where It Makes the Most Difference -- Where Is Agility Most Important in Your Business? -- Chapter 2 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 -- Chapter 3 Right Customers, Right Value, Right Time: Identify Your Most Attractive Customers and Pivot with Them -- Your Customers Can Show You the Way -- Assess Growth and Profitability by Customer -- When You See Fast Growth or High Profitability, Find Out What's Behind It -- Look for Customers Who Are Using Your Products in an Unusual Way -- Direct Resources Toward Your Most Attractive Customers -- Your Products Can Show You the Way -- Market Share as an Indicator of Opportunity -- The Magic Matrix: Looking at Product and Customer Performance Simultaneously -- 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.
Chapter 4 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 -- What to Observe -- Whom to Talk To -- What to Find Out -- 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 -- Chapter 5 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? -- Pressure on margins -- Pressure on revenue -- International opportunities -- Macroeconomic changes -- Reshoring -- New technologies -- Regulatory changes -- 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? -- Investment in Customer Collaboration -- Providing Expert Logistics Advice and Outsourced Supply Chain Management -- Expansion in the Health Care Logistics Arena -- Experimentation and Learning in "Green" Technologies -- International Expansion -- Cost Reduction -- New Services That Cater to the Consumer -- In Conclusion -- Chapter 6 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 -- Get All Functions Involved -- Use Metaphors to Stimulate Thought -- Look at the Whole Ecosystem -- See for Yourself and Check Your Assumptions -- Use What's Already There.
Make a Different Choice Than Your Competitors -- Make Sure the Whole Channel Benefits from the Innovation -- Techniques for Developing Breakthrough Thinking -- Assemble Grounded, Imaginative, and Cross-Functional Teams -- Ask New Questions -- Challenge Existing Assumptions and Ways of Doing Things -- Develop Multiple Alternatives -- Check the Endpoints and Fill the Whole Space -- Innovate by Eliminating -- Give Team Members Time to Think Independently -- Use Open Innovation to Gain Ideas from the Outside -- Visualize Early and Use Prototypes -- Leverage Ideas from Outside Your Industry -- Focus on a Specific Customer or Customer Segment -- In Conclusion -- Chapter 7 Manage Uncertainty: Be Courageous, Anticipate What Might Happen, and Address Risks Head-On -- How Tesla Motors Succeeded, and Managed Risk -- Design Your Strategy to Maximize Learning -- Manage Technology Risk -- Manage Customer-Demand Risk -- Leverage Your Assets and Partnerships to Manage Risk -- Manage Competitive Risk: Think from the Ground Up to Develop a Differentiated Offering -- Be the Best at Something -- What Should We Learn from Elon Musk? -- Further Thoughts on Managing Risk and Uncertainty -- Using Scenario Analysis -- Step One: Outline the Parameters of Change -- Step Two: Identify Potential Future Scenarios -- Step Three: Decide What Actions to Take Based on the Scenarios That Might Transpire -- Recognize, Manage, and Test the Assumptions Required to Succeed -- In Conclusion -- Chapter 8 Turning a Strategic Corner: Take the First Steps, Shed What Doesn't Fit, Experiment, and Reinforce -- Communicate Intent -- Communicate Intent to Employees -- Communicate Intent to Suppliers, Partners, and Customers -- Take the First Steps -- Shed What Doesn't Fit -- Build New Capabilities -- Experiment and Reinforce -- Seek Change and Welcome Failures -- Conduct Experiments.
Reinforce and Replicate What Works -- In Conclusion -- Chapter 9 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 -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- About the Author -- Index -- EULA.
Abstract:
How to win market leadership in a fast-changing world In the past, companies could pick a strategy and stick with it, maintaining a competitive edge for years. But today, companies surge ahead, fall behind, or even disappear in mere months. If you and your company are going to thrive for the long run, you need to continuously evolve, change, and stay a step ahead of your competition. The ability to see and capitalize on new opportunities is the cornerstone of agility. Successful technology-based firms like Google, Tesla, and Amazon have all mastered agility within their core business practices, but companies in any sector can-and must-learn to spot new opportunities and make the right choices about what to invest in, what to change, and what to abandon. The Agility Advantage first shows how to identify those aspects of your business where agility is most crucial-where the business environment is changing fast-and which elements have the greatest impact on the customer's decision to buy. Amanda Setili then shows how to master the three components of agility: Market agility: Gain ideas from your most demanding and forward-thinking customers and from outside your industry. Engage, observe, and mix with customers to identify the opportunities created by their changing demands. Decision agility: Anticipate the changes that may affect you and turn even troubling trends into opportunities. Design your strategy to maximize learning and to manage risk. Generate diverse alternatives and make fast, fact-based decisions about which to pursue. Execution agility: Build new capabilities, shed what doesn't fit, and take the first steps in a new direction. Experiment, then reinforce and build on what works. Enlist and inspire your organization around a compelling purpose and grant employees the autonomy and resources to continuously adapt and adjust course.
The future will present more opportunities but narrower windows to capture them. With a wealth of valuable information and practical strategies, The Agility Advantage is essential reading to help any organization adapt and thrive-both today and tomorrow.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
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Electronic Access:
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