A new operating model to support organisational agility

To enable organisations to move faster, more resiliently and more successfully, it requires a different way of thinking as well as management models and methods. There is no “one size fits all” solution, so leaders will need a clear understanding of their strategic starting point, as well as their own organisation’s ability to respond.

Leaders will need to look widely for growth opportunities, test the market and then zero in on a few initiatives. Being able to do it fast, with all planners participating at the appropriate time, will give organisations the agility they seek.

However, it’s impossible to make progress or innovate without taking some risks. This is where collaboration and scenario planning come into their own, nurtured in a “fail early and fail-safe” environment.

Collaboration is an essential aspect of innovation as it enables everyone to bring their unique set of knowledge and skills to the table, encouraging them to explore a wider range of opportunities. It can only be achieved when organisations are able to combine insight, valuable data, and leverage information from their respective areas.

The characteristics of an agile company include cross-functional collaboration from start to finish, with resources and decision-making powers available when required. But it’s more than just empowerment.

According to Forbes , managers should enact the following shifts:

• Embrace change and see it as an opportunity.
• Enable autonomy with sensible guard rails.
• Decisions should be fact-based.
• Concentration on a few, but ambitious, clearly formulated goals with measurable key results at the company, team, and individual level.
• Peer accountability with feedback cycles replaces command and control.
• Encourage collaboration and remove barriers.

When faced with profitability decisions that restrict resources, challenge teams to find solutions that preserve innovation and growth and ensure future competitive advantage. Not all resources in the business are created equal, so ensure that executives are aligned on priorities to enable speed and agility.

To exercise effective oversight and decision making, boards need to develop an understanding of the global (and local) developments that are impacting the organisation. Also, to establish a benchmark for resilience, organisations should perform regular analytics, briefings, and scenario planning, with a focus on identifying trends.

Underpinning these efforts with good quality data is critical to have productive, value-creating collaboration. To ensure that everyone is on the same page and errors of interpretation do not occur, leaders should embrace technology and data, reinvent core processes, and adopt new collaboration tools.

Finance is uniquely placed to support resilience

The finance team is in a unique position to pull the company together and drive collaboration across business units. Operations, sales, finance, HR, marketing, and other teams all have a need for fast, flexible planning and analysis.

Every action in the company is reflected in the data, which is typically held by finance. However, it’s not enough to just report on the numbers, there are tangible benefits for the business by empowering data-driven decision-making.

Finance has the tools to define the outcome of a strategy and provide clear direction based on reliable data from all around the company and in the market in which it operates. As a result, sophisticated planning, and forecasting, alongside an agile and responsive finance function are the most critical capabilities for CFOs over the next five years.

Naturally, it is important to ensure that the underlying data is relevant and accurate when using it to make decisions. With so much data available, securely collecting and sharing the data between teams is essential.

By automating tedious and labour-intensive tasks like data collection, aggregation and cleansing, finance teams are empowered to spend more time on value-added work that enables leaders to make better-informed decisions.

For further information, including best practice tips, download our guide