agility

Organisational culture is self-reinforcing – it maintains itself by rewarding behaviour which is deemed to be appropriate and censures behaviour which rattles the status quo. In fact, as mentioned by Daniel Goleman in his book, “Primal Leadership”: “Leaders who wish to install widespread change need to first recognise that they’re working against a paradox –…

Globalisation, made possible over the past half-century through more speedy and efficient forms of travel (commuting intercontinentally) and telecommunications (mobile technology and fast data transfer through the internet), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies and governments all over the world. S Guttal (Globalisation, Development in Practice) notes: “As a complex and…

Companies seem to be struggling to react swiftly to ever-changing customer expectations and needs in a business context of shifting market conditions and financial swings. Stephen M Dent (Partnership Relationship Management) noted: “Outmanoeuvring competitors involves capitalising on highly effective internal and external relationships that ensure the business has the capabilities to support its mission and…

As organisations grow, they get fat. As they get fat, the ability to be flexible, grab new possibilities and make subtle shifts in focus or direction is impeded. The impediment causes frustration and results in everyone “working harder” in activities that are possibly not relevant to the prevailing market needs. The irrelevance in the market…