Can Any Business be Agile?

On the surface, your popular neighborhood coffee shop and tech giant Google might not seem to share many similarities. The product, company structure, culture, and capabilities place either business on opposite sides of a spectrum.

But with a closer look, these two companies might have more in common than we think. The small business and global powerhouse each operate with a strong team that can drive toward a focused, customer-centric goal, effectively responding when inevitable disruptions arise. In business, this is called agility.

What is business agility?

In today’s rapidly changing marketplace, we’ve seen business agility across diverse industries. Agile businesses are able to quickly respond to change and stay flexible, responsive, and innovative. Whenever you think of business agility, imagine a cheetah—swift, adaptable, and always on the move.

But can every business embody these traits? In this post, we’ll examine how different types of businesses practice agility and make the case for why every business needs to embrace agility.

What is an agile business model?

Adapting to customer needs and responding to market changes quickly are key pillars of an agile business model. To understand the importance of business agility across various industries, we will apply an agile lens to our neighborhood coffee shop and tech-giant.

Your favorite local coffee shop likely started their operation with a few tables and brewing coffee. When customers began asking for more products over time, shop owners listened and started serving baked goods, brunch, and fancier espresso drinks. During unexpected disruptions, like the COVID-19 pandemic, the shop may have created an outdoor dining experience for customers while adhering to new health code measures.

We can also recognize the importance of business agility in Fortune 100 companies. While scaling agility for a massive operation like Google may seem daunting, a closer look at the company’s operations reveals that an agile mindset is just as crucial for success.

Google started as a simple search engine, but the company continuously looked for opportunities to create more features for its users. Over time, Google added email, maps, cloud storage, and online courses. More recently, Google has integrated AI into nearly all of their products. While some companies have resisted AI, viewing it as a disruption, Google’s ability to adapt has helped it stay ahead of competitors.

Failure to embrace change by adopting agile ways of working can threaten a company’s ability to stay focused on the ever-changing market or customer’s needs, ultimately contributing to its downfall. Kodak, remembered for its obsolete concept of print photographs and analog cameras, is a prime example of a company that let evolving concepts overwhelm its product. Agility demands an ongoing spirit of continuous improvement, often recognized in small, consistent growth intervals.

To gain a better understanding of business agility, enroll in Hyperdrive’s Business Agility Foundations course today!

Can any business be agile?

Any business can be agile if it adopts and nurtures the right mindset and culture. Agile teams embrace a few core values and principles to guide their operations. Approach the following four steps as a circular-cycle, rather than linear, to foster agility within your team.

Shift the Mindset

Agile businesses need to welcome and embrace change rather than fear it. This may involve a shift of mindset and workplace culture, but it’s the first-right step in the journey toward business agility.

Imagine leading a team that embraces change as an opportunity to grow, never shying away from new ideas. This team grows energized by running experiments, measuring results, and making data-driven business decisions. Opening the door for new innovation creates a culture that fosters a learning environment and experimentation.

Your team’s ways of working should parallel the methods of a successful artist. When artists paint a masterpiece, they often make dozens of sketches.

Early drafts, sometimes messy, help them discover what works and what doesn’t. Each mistake gets them closer to their final product. Perseverance through trial and error ultimately generates satisfaction.

This experimental mindset can turn every misstep into a stepping stone for success. Instead of hiding from change, greet it with excitement. Transform your workplace into a nurturing ground for fresh ideas and continuous learning. After all, isn’t it more thrilling to be pioneers who sail uncharted waters rather than staying moored at the same old dock?

Implement Flexibility

Flexible processes are critical for businesses when unexpected obstacles arise. The path to a goal is rarely straight and often met with disruptions.

To create space for potential adjustments to the product, the agile business model breaks tasks into small, manageable pieces. These iterations typically span 1 to 4 weeks. This focus on short-term goals ensures teams stay focused on their goals, identify threats or disruptions, and pivot when necessary.

Create Agile Teams

When breaking down big projects into manageable pieces, Agile teams constantly learn from each step. To create a high-performing agile team generating continuous growth, Hyperdrive CEO Stacey Louie said teams should utilize five steps to jumpstart their agile teams:

1. Use a timeboxed iteration to plan and execute work
2. Determine tasks required to meet objectives
3. Prioritize tasks by customer value
4. Present completed work to the customer for feedback
5. Reflect on the week’s outcomes to identify opportunities to improve performance or process

Large organizations, enterprises in transformation, or teams handling complex products should consider incorporating an agile framework to expand agility across teams. The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is the most popular framework, with Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS), Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD), and Scrum@Scale also ranking high amongst agile teams. Businesses utilizing one of these frameworks report improvements to coordination, alignment, delivery times, and visibility.

Focus on the Customers

Customers should be at the heart of every company’s goals, strategies, and products. While this may seem intuitive, a Harvard Business Review study found only 15 percent of businesses operate with a customer-centric approach, opting for a product-based strategy instead. These product-minded teams can fall out of touch with stakeholder needs, and failing to keep customers at the center of strategy places invisible barriers to a product’s success.

Understanding customer needs requires an ongoing effort, as teams must adjust strategy and product based on an ever-changing market. To keep customers at the center of your team’s orbit, ask for feedback regularly. Set up surveys or ask casual questions on social media.

Analyze behavior and trends with digital metrics. Clicks, impressions, time spent on a page, and reviews can help you tailor your product for consumers. Pivot and adjust based on what you learn.

Final Thoughts: Why is Agility Important in Business?

In today’s fast-paced world, agility isn’t just a trendy buzzword; it’s a necessity. Any business can be agile, but it requires a commitment to flexibility and continuous improvement.

Agile businesses can better handle disruptions, quickly seize opportunities, and improve efficiency. They are often more innovative and can deliver more value to customers faster, so they can dominate the market. Start small, stay flexible, and watch your business transform!