Sometimes small groups of devoted individuals (like at Brakes) spot an urgent need, re-evaluate priorities, and re-focus. At speed. This speed of decision making is a by-product of crisis, breaking with those pesky bureaucratic procedures in order to keep the pace needed for innovation.
But, once the imminent danger is gone, do you go back to the ‘old’ plan? The ‘old’ ways of working? We think not.
Empower your ‘deliverers of digital’ that live and breathe the values of innovation, and who focus relentlessly on improving customer experience. This goes a long way to discovering agile organically – and maintaining it. The end goal should always be to make the customer’s experience as enjoyable as possible. Shorten delivery times, encourage reviews and harness them, really pay attention and act on them. Agility requires a mindset where your team members fulfil a ‘part of the customer journey’, not a ‘departmental role’.
Why not create teams charged solely with generating innovations? A flexible approach such as this promotes operational agility, keeping the cadence of innovation high. Agile enterprises are always concerned with speed, not just during global pandemics.
Knowing your customer better than ever allows you to be even pickier with your ecosystem. Having an e-commerce stack that promotes a best-of-breed approach lets you tailor your omni-channel solution to the best fit for your consumers. Anything that doesn’t work? Bin it and move on to the next potential solution. This is nothing new. Designing e-commerce around ideal omni-channel experiences always results in better commercial performance. The only way to keep up with the demand of the customers is to remain agile and adaptive.
The new normal might be daunting, but one thing is clear – it’s proving great for innovation. If you’re agile enough to keep up. Agile, or fragile. Which one are you?
