June 1, 2007

“Don’t worry.  We’ve got it covered.  Around here, the key to flexibility is indecision.”

Flexibility, adaptability, and agility are critical factors to be successful in today’s business climate.  Unfortunately, more and more companies are leading with these descriptors without having basic support infrastructure and organizational foundations in place.

Several years ago, Joe Freburger (one of my partners) and I were working for a company that was expanding rapidly.  We needed an established process for our burgeoning delivery requirements.  Our sales folks told a terrific story on how our process worked but they were selling vapor.  Meeting after meeting was held to define the process for delivering our services.  Progress was slow.  Decisions to move forward were not being made.  Nerves were on edge and tempers somewhat short when someone from marketing suggested that the process needed to be flexible and adaptable to all of our clients’ needs. 

Joe broke the tension when he said, “Don’t worry.  We’ve got it covered.  Around here, the key to flexibility is indecision.”

His response must sound familiar to many of you.  Before we attempt to be everything to everybody, we must decide who we’re going to be initially:

·         What are our core competencies? 

·         What is the market telling us about ourselves? 

·         What processes need to be clearly defined and detailed?

·         What weaknesses do we have that the competition exploits? 

·         In what areas of our value proposition or delivery capability is there no room for compromise or change? 

It is after answering these and other questions, and only then, that we should add flexibility, adaptability, and agility to our business models in response to the demands of our clients.  Otherwise, our destiny is no longer ours.