Book Image

Enterprise Agility

By : Sunil Mundra
Book Image

Enterprise Agility

By: Sunil Mundra

Overview of this book

The biggest challenge enterprises face today is dealing with fast-paced change in all spheres of business. Enterprise Agility shows how an enterprise can address this challenge head on and thrive in the dynamic environment. Avoiding the mechanistic construction of existing enterprises that focus on predictability and certainty, Enterprise Agility delivers practical advice for responding and adapting to the scale and accelerating pace of disruptive change in the business environment. Agility is a fundamental shift in thinking about how enterprises work to effectively deal with disruptive changes in the business environment. The core belief underlying agility is that enterprises are open and living systems. These living systems, also known as complex adaptive systems (CAS), are ideally suited to deal with change very effectively. Agility is to enterprises what health is to humans. There are some foundational principles that can be broadly applied, but the definition of healthy is very specific to each individual. Enterprise Agility takes a similar approach with regard to agility: it suggests foundational practices to improve the overall health of the body—culture, mindset, and leadership—and the health of its various organs: people, process, governance, structure, technology, and customers. The book also suggests a practical framework to create a plan to enhance agility.
Table of Contents (23 chapters)
Enterprise Agility
About Packt
Forewords
Endorsements
Contributors
Preface
Other Books You May Enjoy
Index

Capabilities underlying agility


David S. Alberts breaks down agility into what he labels as six components [xiii]. They may be viewed as capabilities that enterprises need to develop in order to enhance agility. These can be treated as basic capabilities and enterprises can choose to modify this list based on their context.

Responsiveness

This capability means to recognize that some action is needed as a response to an event or a circumstance, to determine what action is to be taken and then to take that action at the appropriate time. The level of responsiveness depends on the speed at which the need and nature of the action is determined and implemented. The effectiveness of the responsiveness will depend on the outcome of the action taken and the timing of the action. It is about sensing and responding to both potential and actual change in circumstances that can be unfavorable, that is, there is risk.

Versatility

This capability helps to achieve the desired outcomes under new and varying...