Business Agility: An Imperative For Surviving In Today’s Business Environment.

The modern business landscape is ever-changing and competition grows fiercer with each passing day. Technology continues to transform and disrupt the way businesses and individuals operate. To stay ahead of the curve and remain competitive, businesses need to be agile and adaptive to the fast-changing business environment. They must be flexible and ready to respond to any changes in technology, customer demands, and employee expectations. This became evident as the global community witnessed a complete upheaval in our way of life and business operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses were forced to either adapt and embrace new work strategies or risk going under.

Business agility is an organizational method to help businesses adapt quickly to market changes/trends and demands that are either external or internal. If a business is set up to respond rapidly and with flexibility to meet customer demands, they are more likely to thrive and retain them. Being agile manifests in various ways in different organizations. Post covid, businesses worldwide have embraced new means of efficiently communicating ideas. They have reevaluated regular meeting schedules and communication channels.

While reliable software aids in staying up-to-date, the power of real conversations through phone calls, team meetings, Zoom, or video calls should not be underestimated. Agile practices have percolated the business environment and beyond. Agile can not only transform an organization’s approach to software development, but also its enterprise departmental functions, project management practices, and product development. In this article, I will highlight some practices that can help businesses to be agile and cope with changes no matter how rapid.

• Be Rapid in Introducing Change

Agility is connected to evolution, as stagnant entities risk going extinct. Demonstrate continual growth and change by introducing products and services that align with the evolving preferences of consumers. Agile businesses possess the ability to address diverse needs and demands by delivering highly tailored products. They can rapidly enhance their offerings through customer feedback, resulting in higher customer satisfaction. Moreover, agile organizations can anticipate evolving customer expectations and market opportunities, positioning themselves as pioneers in introducing new products and services.

• Have a Commitment to the Environment

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors are gaining increasing importance, with sustainability serving as the way forward. Businesses working towards sustainable goals are more likely to attract and retain employees and customers. Agile businesses must realize that the old way of doing things will not work and in order to improve, it is necessary that you incorporate these sustainable values as an integral part of your organizational model.

• Deliver Exceptional Customer Service and Satisfaction

Digitalization has heightened the significance of satisfying customers as a primary objective. Agile companies monitor changes in customer preferences and satisfaction rates, utilizing this feedback to continually improve products and services. An agile business with the help of data analytics can easily assess trends amongst consumers and track their spending habits. With this information, you will be better positioned to satisfy your customers and provide them with exceptional service as you will be able to design products that are tailored towards the specific needs of your customers.

• Respond to Changing Market Demands

Agile organizations promptly adapt to new situations by identifying opportunities and embracing more efficient approaches, rather than resisting change. In today's world of business, agile organizations must embrace the uncertainties of an ever-evolving world and work at responding to the changes with timely solutions. In order to survive as a business, it is no longer satisfactory to modify your current business practices but it has become increasingly necessary that business must go a step further and design new products and services in order to expand their market reach and solidify their grip on market share.

Business agility becomes a possibility when it is a shared responsibility across all levels of hierarchy in an organization. The adoption of a novel or different working style should not only be limited to a few groups of people but rather to the entire organization, embracing to promote a huge change that can increase a company’s value and competitiveness in the markets.

Marian Amartey ,

Head, Business Enablement (BCB) - Stanbic Bank Ghana