Why do businesses need to be agile? The short answer to that question is that without agility, many businesses may find themselves crumbling during times of disruption.
Disruption - changes brought about by social, technical or economic upheaval - can range from small, large or even earth-shattering events. Disruption almost never comes from a single source, and often arrives with little or no warning. Businesses that have built agility into their core strategy stand the best chance to not only survive disruption, but use it as a launching pad to bigger and better things.
To turn disruption into an advantage, it's important to identify where it's likely to come from.
So how can organisations adapt to a changing environment, and what communication platforms can businesses use to their advantage?
Where does disruption come from?
To turn disruption into an advantage, it's important to identify where it's likely to come from, so businesses can plan for it ahead of time. While disruption can shake up an industry, rather than a single big jolt it often resembles a series of rumbles from smaller sources, combining to form a big event, says PwC. Disruptive sources include:
- New kinds of competition.
- Consumer behaviour changes.
- New distribution methods.
- Changing regulations.
- Changing technologies.
Disruption can come from a single disruptive source or a combination of the above, which is one of the reasons it's so hard to predict when and where it will occur. The severity of these sources can also change over time, according to PwC. For example, until recently the most significant disruption came from competitors. Now, consumer behaviour holds the most weight.
Whenever and wherever disruption hits, businesses need to be agile enough to weather whatever change may come their way.
How can businesses thrive off disruption?How to improve business agility
Maintaining an agile and flexible work environment is a simple matter for businesses with the right strategy. CIO magazine has outlined several key steps in attaining this:
- Go beyond the present. Agile businesses must keep a constant eye to the future, and create platforms that go beyond solving present issues. As such, any strategies and technology must be able to grow with the company.
- Bring people and technology together. Separation (whether it be physical or virtual) makes it difficult for businesses to quickly act in response to change. Businesses need to be able to communicate anywhere and work together during times of change.
- Embrace the unknown. The future is uncertain, so rather than avoiding change, implementing collaborative strategies within organisations gives businesses a greater pool of resources to adapt to disruption.
- Make sure the purpose of agility is clear. What is the purpose of becoming more agile? Is it to better connect with changing consumers, is it to adapt to new technologies? Agility means very little if there isn't a clear underlying strategy, says IDG Communications.
Unified communications help businesses become more agile by putting the power of a single collaborative platform in the hands of employees.
Why Fonality's business phone systems can help your company be more agile
Unified communications help businesses become more agile by putting the power of a single collaborative platform in the hands of employees. By pooling communication channels into a single space, employees are able to work together in a clear, collaborative manner. No matter where disruption comes from, businesses can operate with the confidence that they'll have the flexibility to stay productive.
Fonality's business phone systems are also able to grow with your business. Scaling up and down as required, businesses aren't left twiddling their thumbs should requirements suddenly rise or fall.
Staying agile during times of change doesn't have to require ongoing planning and strategising. Rather, with the right technological solutions businesses already have agility build into their core operations, so they can dedicate greater resources in producing their own disruptive shake-ups.
To find out more, get in touch with the team at Fonality today.
