Understanding Agility in Business: Use the S Curve
We continue to define the term “strategic agility” more rigorously. Following an S-Curve framework, there are 5 critical strategic focus areas an enterprise must manage. (I corrected the image. You can download a PDF here: http://bit.ly/2u5WtJH)
Recombinant Innovation: Creating new value by linking and leveraging existing assets both inside and outside the organization. Knowledge assets are hidden both inside and outside the firm. Closely tied to open innovation.
Business Model Innovation: Creating a conceptual model of the business that explains the logic of how the business will create and capture value. Business model innovation happens at all phases of the life cycle.
Continuous improvement: Developing lean disciplines across the organization for continuous improvement of business processes. Existing processes are redesigned to improve productivity.
Produce/Market Innovation: Extending existing lines of business into adjacent products and new markets. Closely associated with the Ansoff Matrix, this area focuses on classic diversification: augmenting existing products and entering new markets.
Release and Redeployment: Releasing assets from existing business processes to create and capture new value. Assets are redeployed within the business or divested.
The Founder of the Lab at UNA and co-author of Strategic Doing: 10 Skills for Agile Leadership, Ed’s work has focused on developing new models of strategy specifically designed to accelerate complex collaboration in networks and open innovation. He is the original developer of Strategic Doing.