Think fast, act fast, respond fast, change fast
"QUICK-moving, nimble and active" is how the Oxford dictionary defines the word agile.
It's a word often used by observers of animals to describe those that run the fastest, leap the highest, those that deftly outwit their attackers. Those who are agile survive.
The word can also be applied to today's dog-eat-dog business world. Changes are furious and fast.
Competition is everywhere – people are constantly breaking new ground, introducing new technologies and new products, and they're uber-marketing them in all sorts of creative ways that were unimaginable just a decade or two ago.
If you're not running with them, or in front, you're behind them.
Santie Botha, one of South Africa's most successful entrepreneurs, who was BWA businesswoman of the year in 2010, believes agility is the key ingredient business leaders need to succeed in the world today. They must adapt, move quickly and set the pace. They must constantly innovate – and respond quickly to any curve ball that comes their way.
At 49, she is the youngest chancellor of a South African university – Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University – and was in the Bay recently sharing business leadership tips with the university's top-performing students.
Botha is also chairman of Famous Brands, as well as a non-executive director of Tiger Brands, Telkom and Liberty Holdings. She also chairs Curro Holdings, the parent company of Curro private schools.
She is a former group executive director of Absa – and was responsible for merging the four brands Volkskas, Allied, United Bank and Trust Bank into one. She was also the marketing guru behind the 2010 success of MTN and its Ayoba brand campaign, which saw the telecom giant become the only African global sponsor of the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
She's one of South Africa's top 10 richest women, according to the 2010 Intellidex "Rich List".
Business agility is something she gets – and she's taken companies from good to great because of it.
Her thoughts are echoed in a Forbes.com article on the same topic, in which Craig le Clair writes that 70% of companies that were on the Fortune 1000 list 10 years ago have now vanished, having been unable to adapt to change.
The big corporates that once dominated with a single core competency and a huge cost advantage are a thing of the past. Digital disruption – which includes the internet, cloud-based applications, mobile phones and more – has changed the business landscape.
In other words, just because you're the fattest cat on the block doesn't mean you can rest on your laurels. You still have to put yourself out there with everyone else or you could get left behind.
It's interesting to note that, probably for the first time since Forbes started ranking the world's top brands, Coca-Cola did not make this year's top 10. Let this sink in for a minute. From 2000, Coca-Cola was the No1 one brand every year until 2013, when it dropped to third place. This year, it sank nine more positions to 12th.
Media reports say part of the reason for Coke's poor revenue growth over the past few years is the global move towards healthier options.
Even its diet drinks are not as popular as they once were, due to health concerns over the use of the chemical aspartame in diet drinks.
The brand is still massively popular worldwide, but to be at the top of the food chain, again, it will have to change its business focus and probably push its healthier options – its bottled teas, water, juice and energy drinks – to climb the brand ladder.
Le Clair says companies must break away from the "assumption of sustainable competitive advantage" and develop an "agility advantage".
He defines business agility as the quality that allows an enterprise to embrace market and operational changes as a matter of routine.
As an example of business agility in practice, Botha cites Tesla Motors' Elon Musk, the South Africa-born Canadian-American billionaire business magnate who founded electric carmaker Tesla.
In June, Musk announced that he would set the company's patents for electric cars free. Rather than holding on to patents, as most companies do, Musk's motivation was to accelerate the electric vehicle industry by allowing people to build on existing information.
It's brand new thinking. Has it damaged his brand? Not according to Forbes.com, which says Tesla stock is up 625% over the past year.
American car pioneer Nelson Jackson – who with driving partner Sewall K Crocker made the first car trip across the US in 1903 – was right when he said: "I don't believe you can do today's job with yesterday's methods and be in business tomorrow."
If your business is going nowhere slowly, you might want to put business agility at the top of your agenda.
Shake off the herd mentality. Challenge the old dinosaurs and stubborn donkeys on your team. And act now. Or be prepared to eat your competitors' dust. – Nicky Willemse is an award-winning freelance journalist
