Strategic Agility: A State of the Art Introduction to the Special Section on Strategic Agility

TLDR

In rapidly changing, turbulent markets driven by globalization, technology, and shifting consumer preferences, strategic agility—flexibility and continuous adjustment of strategy—is increasingly essential for firm success. The paper proposes creating strategically agile companies to address growing strategic discontinuities and disruptions. It suggests mechanisms such as new approaches to business transformation and renewal, dynamic capabilities, imitation abilities, organizational flexibility, ambidexterity, and learning.

Abstract

In a chaotic environment in which markets emerge, collide, split, evolve, and die, one of the primary determinants of a firm's success is strategic agility, the ability to remain flexible in facing new developments, to continuously adjust the company's strategic direction, and to develop innovative ways to create value. The competitive landscape has been shifting in recent years more than ever. Globalization, rapid technological change, codification of knowledge, the internet, talent and employee mobility, increased rates of knowledge transfer, imitation, changes in customer tastes, and the obsolescence of products and business models have all caused a turbulent environment and accelerated changes and disruptions. These trends are expected to continue, producing ever more rapid and unpredictable changes. Current concepts such as sustained competitive advantage, resource-based view, and strategic planning have been deemed vague, tautological, and inadequate for companies to cope with the rate and complexity of environmental and market changes.1 There are tensions between formal processes of strategic planning and opportunistic strategic agility. Strategic planning has been criticized for preparing plans for tomorrow based on yesterday's actions, concepts, and tools. Although strategic planning can help in specific situations, it usually creates an inertia that prevents fast adaptation when circumstances change or market discontinuities occur. There is an agreement on the importance of strategic agility in light of complex managerial challenges such as dynamic environment, globalization, accelerating rate of innovation, and mergers and acquisitions (as mentioned by Jack Welch).2 Strategic agility requires inventing new business models and new categories rather than rearranging old products and categories. To cope with growing strategic discontinuities and disruptions, scholars have suggested the creation of strategically agile companies, including new ways for managing business transformation and renewal, developing dynamic capabilities, creating imitation abilities, maintaining a high level of organizational flexibility and ambidexterity, developing learning and …