Insight from futurist, trends, creativity and innovation expert Jim Carroll

What makes for corporate agility?

In a recent presentation and Profit article, I focused on how organizations and leaders must incorporate four key capabilities: agility, insight, innovation and execution.

Corporate agility concept is perhaps the most critical: organizations must presume that the rate of change today is so fast that product lifecycles are collapsing, business models are relentlessly shifting, and customers are unforgiving and fleeting.

Agility implies that we must innovate and adapt based on rapidly changing circumstances, on a continuous basis.

How do we do that? By adopting several key guiding principles that form the basis for all corporate strategy and activities going forward:

plan for short term longevity: No one can presume that markets, products, customers and assumptions will remain static: everything is changing instantly. Business strategies and activities must increasingly become short term oriented while fulfilling a long term mission.
presume lack of rigidity: Many organizations undertake plans based on key assumptions. Agile organizations do so by presuming that those key assumptions are going to change regularly over time, and so build into their plans a degree of ongoing flexibility.
design for flexibility : In a world of constant change, products or services must be designed in such a way that they can be quickly redesigned without massive cost and effort. Think like Google: every product and service should be a beta, with the inherent foundation being one of flexibility for future change.
build with extensibility: Apple understood the potential for rapid change by building into the iPod architecture the fundamental capability for other companies to develop add-on products. Think the same way : tap into the world. Let the customer, supplier, partners and others innovate on your behalf!
harness external creativity: In a world in which knowledge is evolving at a furious pace, no one organization can do everything. Recogize your limits, and tap into the skills, insight and capabilities of those who can do things better.
plan for supportability: Customers today measure you by a bar that is raised extremely high -- they expect you to deliver the same degree of high-quality that they get from the best companies on the planet. They expect instant support, rapid service, and constant innovation. If you don't provide this, they'll simply move on to an alternative.
revisit with regularity: Banish complacency. Focus on change. Continually revisit your plans, assumptions, models and strategies, because the world next week is going to be different than that of today.

What makes for corporate agility?

Hyper-boomers, Gen-Connect and Manure Managers

What's your agility

Financial industry clients

Yup!







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		Jim Carroll's blog - April 2006

	Innovation: What makes for corporate agility? Keynotes: Hyper-boomers, Gen-Connect and Manure Managers Keynotes: What's your agility Industry - Financial: Financial industry clients Trends: Yup! What makes for corporate agility? In a recent presentation and Profit article, I focused on how organizations and leaders must incorporate four key capabilities: agility, insight, innovation and execution. Corporate agility concept is perhaps the most critical: organizations must presume that the rate of change today is so fast that product lifecycles are collapsing, business models are relentlessly shifting, and customers are unforgiving and fleeting. Agility implies that we must innovate and adapt based on rapidly changing circumstances, on a continuous basis. How do we do that? By adopting several key guiding principles that form the basis for all corporate strategy and activities going forward: plan for short term longevity: No one can presume that markets, products, customers and assumptions will remain static: everything is changing instantly. Business strategies and activities must increasingly become short term oriented while fulfilling a long term mission. presume lack of rigidity: Many organizations undertake plans based on key assumptions. Agile organizations do so by presuming that those key assumptions are going to change regularly over time, and so build into their plans a degree of ongoing flexibility. design for flexibility : In a world of constant change, products or services must be designed in such a way that they can be quickly redesigned without massive cost and effort. Think like Google: every product and service should be a beta, with the inherent foundation being one of flexibility for future change. build with extensibility: Apple understood the potential for rapid change by building into the iPod architecture the fundamental capability for other companies to develop add-on products. Think the same way : tap into the world. Let the customer, supplier, partners and others innovate on your behalf! harness external creativity: In a world in which knowledge is evolving at a furious pace, no one organization can do everything. Recogize your limits, and tap into the skills, insight and capabilities of those who can do things better. plan for supportability: Customers today measure you by a bar that is raised extremely high -- they expect you to deliver the same degree of high-quality that they get from the best companies on the planet. They expect instant support, rapid service, and constant innovation. If you don't provide this, they'll simply move on to an alternative. revisit with regularity: Banish complacency. Focus on change. Continually revisit your plans, assumptions, models and strategies, because the world next week is going to be different than that of today. To me, that's what agility is all about. del.icio.us Furl StumbleUpon Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:50 AM...April 28, 2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hyper-boomers, Gen-Connect and Manure Managers One of the most pressing challenges yet to come will the massive workplace and skills issues that organizations are going to have to manage -- a widely age-diverse workplace, completely different career expectations, and a significant skills shortage due to rapid knowledge growth. There are a bunch of upcoming keynotes where I'm focusing on these issues for major clients. This morning, I wrote up the session description for one conference brochure. It's a fascinating topic, full of challenges -- and I have quite a bit of fun with my audiences on this one! ------- Join international futurist, trends & innovation expert Jim Carroll as he explores some of the biggest challenges facing organizations today. With the coming "end of retirement," most companies will come to realize they'll need a lot of telephones with big buttons for members the 70+ folks who are still a part of their workforce -- and a lot of innovative workplace practices as well. That's but one challenge -- the arrival of "Gen-Connect" -- the kids who have been wired with a mouse since birth -- will lead to the question of whether "good luck" will be the only possible response to the question of "Managing Gen-Y." This workplace weirdness will only be compounded by the ongoing rapid evolution of knowledge and skills, such that most organizations will find it impossible to find the highly specialized skills needed in the economy of the future. Are we really in an economy in which there is an emerging profession of folks known as "manure managers?" You bet -- and it's all part of the unique issues that companies must begin thinking about today. Jim's recent clients include such global organizations as Disney, the BBC, DaimlerChrylser, Nestle, Caterpillar, and the US Army Corps of Engineers. Join Jim as he shares his insight into the trends that you already faced with, and the innovative and creative ways that you can come to grips with the depth of the challenges ahead. del.icio.us Furl StumbleUpon Permanent link to this item ...posted at 08:22 AM...April 27, 2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . What's your agility I spent the day in Pasadena with, and did a keynote for the Disney Consumer Products group; this is "the business segment of The Walt Disney Company that extends the Disney brand to merchandise ranging from apparel, toys, home décor and books to interactive games, food and beverages, stationery, electronics and animation art. We had a good, long look at future trends in retail, the emerging consumer of the future, and how agility, insight and execution are critical leadership capabilities that are needed in a time of rapid change. This is one of many talks I've done with consumer product or entertainment companies in the last while; folks are realizing that the rapid challenges emerging in the retail sector globally need to be met head on. del.icio.us Furl StumbleUpon Permanent link to this item ...posted at 09:16 AM...April 26, 2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Financial industry clients Some background on the work I've done in this area Partial Client List - Banking and Finance Clients International Financial Executies Conference • American Community Banker Association • US Farm Credit Cooperative • Fidelity Bank (Cayman) Ltd. • DataCard • AICPA • Credit Union Management Association • Electronic Transaction Association . Insurance Institute of Canada • IREV (Swedish Accounting Association) • Investment Funds Institute of Canada • KPMG • Deloitte's • ETrade • Financial Management Institute • Great West Life • Price Waterhouse • RBC Financial Group • Society of Management Accountants • Treasury Management Association • US Committee on State Taxation • VISA . American Express • CIBC World Markets • BMO Financial Group • Credit Union Directors Association • Financial Management Institute • GBC Asset Management • TDBank Focus areas* . business case issues, particularly with distribution channels - broker/agents/sales agents/staff . kickoff / keynote for staff/broker/agent events . sales force training and motivation . innovation -- new business models, exploiting new opportunities in the financial industry . Top 500 sales conferences -- encouraging your top producers to adapt to the future . a industry specific look to the future . spurring broker/agent/staff distribution channels to adopt new business systems put in place by a financial organization . a look to the future -- a futurists view of the financial service industry Financial Industry Highlights provided the keynote for the global Electronic Transaction Association conference held in San Diego ran a workshop for senior executives of CIBC World Markets focussing on customer management /retention issues, competitive challenges, industry change, and how they can spark innovation in order to meet a variety of emerging opportunities and threats KPMG booked Jim Carroll to keynote their annual partners conference. They liked him so much, they rebooked him to keynote four client, industry specicific conferences (including one on the hotel industry, insurance industry and IT), as well as booking him for a six-city client breakfast tour provided four workshops for CEO and senior management team of Blue Cross / Blue Shield Florida , focusing on business strategy issues, and dealing with issues related to the culture of change. The event was so successful, Jim was immediately rebooked for three subsequent sessions, and ended up providing workshops for 500+ senior mangers provided the opening keynote for countless financial association conferences. In each situation, I undertook detailed research to hone in on specific industry issues. This has included . mortgage broker and lending . credit unions . medical insurance . accounting and professional services . insurance . taxation . mutual funds . financial products . online trading . financial management . treasury management and more del.icio.us Furl StumbleUpon Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:13 AM...April 17, 2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yup! Last week: ...to the day before today: del.icio.us Furl StumbleUpon Permanent link to this item ...posted at 08:14 AM...April 14, 2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .