Agile companies outperform conservative firms

LAHORE: Experts said agility in an enterprise plays an important role as an enterprise missing the ability tends to lose opportunities due to delayed centralised decision making, while agile companies tend to be both stable, resilient, and efficient, besides being dynamic fast, nimble, and adaptive.

They said agile companies outperform conservative companies, as new technologies disrupt markets quickly. It has been observed that even the upstarts that are extremely dynamic and efficient in the beginning get entangled in bureaucratic red tape as they grow larger and start losing steam.

Management rules have not changed much, and the core management still makes major decisions, but now powers have to be delegated at the lower levels to ensure quick decisions, said management expert Abdul Haye. “There should be minimal change in design, structures, governance arrangements, and processes.  However, the companies may delegate powers to responsible cadre that could quickly respond to challenges and opportunities,” he added.

He said companies that excel at speed and stability are high-performers depicting better growth besides having top innovators to adjust and readjust their resources quickly. Still, he added they possess certain organisational features that remained the same throughout company history.

Haye said ability to be both stable and dynamic can be achieved if companies operate on the technological model of smartphones. He said the stability of the device comes from hardware and operating system. The dynamism of the device is in its ability to add new apps that could be updated or deleted when that app is not needed, he added.

Another management expert Idrees Tariq said many service and manufacturing concerns have been on the losing end in the recent months because of their rigid management model. The problems faced by the lower cadre were not resolved at that level. Instead, he added the decision was left to the centralised top management. He said they took a long time to take the decision by which time the remedy was no more effective. “There are three core organisational areas where balancing this tension between stability and flexibility is critical,” he said, adding distribution of resources was determined by the organisational structure. The governance model of the enterprise determines how the decisions are made. Finally he added processes dictate how things get done. This, he added includes the management of performance.

Tariq said in tradition management model, a hierarchal chart specifies where work gets done and performance is measured, and who’s responsible for awarding bonuses. He said these decisions are generally taken by the boss or his second in command who oversee and manages reports. He said agile organisations; on the other hand consciously choose which dimension of their organisational structure will be primary. It is decided at the primary level where each individual employee works in the organisation. He said their training and coaching decisions are taken at this level. These decisions will of course be taken on the basis of infrastructure located around their job.

The management expert said as far as the day to day work and performance of employees was concerned, in an agile enterprise the decision would be made by teams that cut across formal structures.

However, he added cross cutting teams would continue to form, dissolve and reform as per market requirements determined by the rapid innovators. He said it has now been established that agility in companies comes when its primary organisational organ is strong and stable. This helps companies to shuffle employees in less successful cells more easily and rapidly. He said in agile enterprises there are less chances of job loss when changes occur in organisation’s market and products.

He said this agile governance empowers stable and dynamic elements in making decisions. He said where stakes are high, decisions are made at primary level, for frequent on job decisions, and powers are delegated as lower as possible, subject to clear accountability. He said it is the decisions at lower level that mostly hinder organisational agility.

He said managements that have addressed this problem prudently are likely to remain healthy and strong.

He said the management has to determine which decisions need to be taken to core committees and which can be delegated to the workers close to day to day action. There are no overlapping roles when companies move from conservative to agile models.