Volatile Times : Call for Agile Measures
If oil went from $ 65 to $ 145 and back to $ 40 in one year, similar changes happened in the prices of palm oil, iron ore, steel, etc.
The threat of volatility is here to stay.
Volatility can be managed only with agility.
Agility is primarily driven by a moving target, namely, changing customer needs. It is also driven by the desire to simplify operations, improve productivity, and lower costs.
Traditional analysis and improvement of work processes enables organizations to perform faster, better and cheaper. But does this satisfy changing customer needs, at speed?
For agility, in addition to the above, we need to be different. Traditional approaches are less likely to succeed.
Agility therefore requires a strong dose of innovation.
Innovation in the product/service development process; as well as product/service delivery planning process.
Agility is about being faster, better, cheaper and different.
Agility is about being first in the market place, satisfying the changing needs of customers.
There is no consolation prize for being second in the market place.
Friday, February 13, 2009 at 9:20 am
Agility makes lot of difference in business. But having right indicators to tell us when to make course corrections is also very important. Something which struck me long back was the concept of lead/lag indicators learnt at the CQM course of Qimpro.
Friday, February 13, 2009 at 11:57 am
Yes Sunil. In principle, I agree.
Having the correct lead-indicators will/should ensure a correct response.
Unfortunately, finding a lead-indicator for volatility is a major challenge.
Agility is about effective response to changing needs of customers. In a volatile environment this can also mean sudden “death”.
Hence the recommendation that innovation needs to be in the DNA of an organization. We must be adept at not only being faster, better and cheaper; but also different; in how we manage our value creation processes. This calls for right-brain agility.
Friday, June 12, 2009 at 10:57 am
Yes measures are required and are useful. But organizations who are not very close to their customers and associates commit the mistake of tracking measures that may not reflect the customers expectation/aspirations. Therefor in my view the it would be useful for organizations to bounce of relevant measures at regular intervals with their customers and suppliers to make sure they are tracking the right metrics.It works as a blindspotting process .