The link for the article 'The Agility Factor'
This is one of a few comprehensive studies on agility. The anchor example for the study is Exxon-Mobil. The routines & subroutines of agility as follow are well supported by examples from wide range of organizations.
* Strategizing Dynamically > Sense of Shared Purpose, Change Friendly Identity, Robust Strategic Intent (eg: Capital One Financial Corporation)
* Perceiving Environmental Change > Sensing, Communicating, Interpreting (eg: Da Vita Health Care Partners)
* Testing Responses > Slack in Resources, Risk Management, Learning (eg: Limited Brands)
* Implementing Change > Management & Organizational Autonomy, Embedded Change Capability, Performance Management (eg: Swedish Bank Svenska Handelsbanken)
The authors also offer additional anchor example of Harley Davidson under 'Making Organizations More Agile' heading to demonstrate adoption of agility in advanced stage. Incidentally they refer to PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) 'Quality Movement Process' cycle.
For me, the routine of Strategize Dynamically, Perceiving Environment, Testing Responses and Implementing Change maps well with PDCA on a strategic level. However, it's a good example of adopting PDCA for Agility to adapt to ground business realities at strategic level!
I am of the opinion that the Agility not only helps in adapting to the dynamically changing business realities it also helps in thriving on acceleratingly changing business realities. Such examples may be derived from the fast growing startups. In fact, amongst the startups there is new zeal to adopt Agile methodologies and thrive on business realities. This movement among startups is driven mainly by Steve Blank and Eric Ries amongst many others.
I think that the agility is the capability which helps organizations to achieve 'antifragility' as defined by Nicholas Taleb or Super Resiliency, where in the agile organizations not only just embrace changes to adapt they seek changes proactively to thrive on the ever accelerating changes!
I completely concur with the authors parting quote of Niccolò Machiavelli’s insight's relevancy for today's businesses: “Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.”
