Assess Your Enterprise Agility

Firms and government organizations are constantly buffeted by changes in their business environment — from changing customer tastes to economic changes affecting raw material prices to government regulations that make hitherto smart business strategies irrelevant. Firms must respond well to these changes to survive and thrive. While firms have used different business strategies to insulate themselves from the effect of change, CEOs are beginning to recognize the need for their firms to become more agile in detecting and making the changes to strategy, operations, and products. Turning agility from a buzzword into a business capability requires firms to measure and manage their ability to change — and agree on what agility means specifically for their enterprise. CIOs should take a lead by helping the executive team understand its own firm's definition of agility and defining the key agility indicators (KAIs) that will highlight improvement.