When a client needs a product that’s similar, but not identical, to what your company offers, you need to react quickly and develop an adapted version that meets their needs. This is what we like to call business agility - an ability that can expand your business in new directions.

If your business is agile then you can take advantage of opportunities before anyone else does. This skill is very important in today’s fierce competition and ever-changing business landscape. Remaining nimble, rather than focusing on long production runs and standard products, can mean the difference between growth and failure for your business. 

A strong sense of agility can also help your business deal with unforeseen risks. A business's agility is the same as a person’s fitness and flexibility. Just as good health allows you to fight off stress and disease, agility allows a business to evolve with changing markets, competition, client preferences, and regulations. To hone your business’s agility you need to follow these 8 steps:

Step 1: Focus

You need to determine your company’s core competencies, which are the things that you do best, what your customers value, and what your competitors can’t duplicate easily. Knowing these competencies will prove to be very helpful going forward.

For example, you may decide that your company’s core competency is expertise in a particular type of motor. From here you determine that you’ll leverage that expertise to develop this motor for varied products in several industries.

Core competencies go beyond specific products and they can include technical knowledge or expertise, a manufacturing process, good relationships with clients and suppliers, an extensive distribution network, or simply a solid team of employees.

Step 2: Relevance

Now you need to determine what the markets are like for the products or services that come from your core competencies. For whom does the company stand out? How can you make money from being distinctive?

At this stage market research is key and it may be helpful to hire an outside consultant to systematically evaluate the opportunities within the local and global markets.

Step 3: Versatility

Once you’ve decided on your market, it’s now time to assess how you can best serve it. If your company’s ability to generate value is based primarily on its investment in equipment, then you’ll need volume to make it profitable. This is where equipment planning is crucial.

However, if your value is based primarily on know-how or experience, then it will be easier to adapt to variations in market opportunities. If this is the case then you must choose your equipment to make the most of the firm’s knowledge.

Step 4: Lean operations

The goal here is to reduce waste in your business, which includes activities that don’t add value. Lean operations allow you to provide your product or service as quickly as possible without having to sacrifice quality or cost increases. To foster lean operations you need to ask yourself: what is needed to make the company’s operations efficient and effective? Which activities add value and which don’t? 

Step 5: Commitment and teamwork

Bring people into your company who have the right aptitudes and attitude and make sure they know what the company is all about. Allow your employees to take part in a common challenge and act as a coordinator and facilitator. If you take care of the people who work for you then they’ll look after your company in return and this will encourage a culture of inclusiveness.

Step 6: Continuous improvement

You need to make it a priority for your company to always better itself at what it does. By doing this you’re committing to a constant focus on improving productivity and quality - and it’s a process that never stops. 

Step 7: Simplicity

It’s crucial to make your administration as light as can be and ask yourself: what information is truly needed? Why? When?

You can avoid any decision bottlenecks by clearly assigning roles and responsibilities. This is where transparent accountability is essential. As a business owner, you must decide who is responsible for making decisions, who has input, and who will implement these decisions and follow up with their progress. 

Step 8: Vigilance

For your business to succeed you need to closely monitor trends and changes in the company’s business data and keep data about your key performance indicators (KPIs) at your fingertips. Therefore, you’ll be able to notice any developments in your business as they occur.

Competitive intelligence is the process of maintaining up-to-date information on your competitors. A focused approach is key when gathering this intelligence and you need to strategically decide what type of information you’re going to collect. Once this is decided you must assign clear responsibilities for collecting, organising, and analysing it.

You must constantly gather information about your industry to help improve your strategic approach and specific processes. Be sure to evaluate how applicable these strategies will be to your business because what works for someone else may not work for you.