The Agility Advantage

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.

Autorentext

AMANDA SETILI is managing partner of strategy consulting
firm Setili & Associates, whose clients include Coca-Cola,
Delta Air Lines, The Home Depot, and Walmart. She previously held
positions with McKinsey & Company and Kimberly-Clark, and
served as an executive with two successful disruptive technology
startups, in the United States and Malaysia. Setili is a graduate
of Vanderbilt University and Harvard Business School and has taught
as an adjunct professor at Emory's Goizueta Business School.
She lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

For more information, please visit www.setili.com

Zusammenfassung

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 canand mustlearn 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 crucialwhere the business environment is changing fastand 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 thriveboth today and tomorrow.

Inhalt

Preface ix

1 What Is Agility--and Why Is It Valuable? 1

2 See Through Your Customers' Eyes: How to See What Your
Competitor Can't 21

3 Right Customers, Right Value, Right Time: Identify Your Most
Attractive Customers and Pivot with Them 43

4 Love the Problem: Dig Deep to Find New Insights 67

5 Turn Trends into Opportunities: Stop Preparing for the Future
and Create It 89

6 Create Breakthrough Strategies: Generate Creative Alternatives
for Capitalizing on the Changes You See 113

7 Manage Uncertainty: Be Courageous, Anticipate What Might
Happen, and Address Risks Head-On 139

8 Turning a Strategic Corner: Take the First Steps, Shed What
Doesn't Fit, Experiment, and Reinforce 161

9 Agility as a Way of Life: Leverage the Power of Purpose,
Autonomy, and Continuous Adaptation 185

Conclusion 209

Notes 211

Acknowledgments 221

About the Author 225

Index 227