Introduction

Change is one of the great certainties of business life, and how well an organisation responds is a measure of its agility. Organisations today find themselves increasingly challenged by having to manage unpredictable and continually changing customer opportunities. Forecasts become unworkable and success is dependent on an ability to respond rapidly and flexibly to customer requirements, to change gear and immerse the organisation in these new opportunities on a constant basis.

The notion of organisational agility has its origins in flexible manufacturing systems, where it was believed that automation alone would confer this capability. Over time, a wider business application has emerged, led by developments in supply-chain management. An acknowledged expert in this field, Professor Martin Christopher from Cranfield School of Management, defines organisational agility as a business-wide capability that embraces organisational structures, information systems, logistics processes and, in particular, mindsets . The agile organisation creates competitive advantage for itself by being able to adapt its people and processes to the continually changing needs of the marketplace, increasingly with the support of technical innovation. The challenge for organisations is to fuse together people and process approaches to achieve cost-effective value delivery. Competitive advantage today lies in recruiting and motivating the right people, giving them the most appropriate tools and training, while at the same time constantly improving business process. When either element, people or process, fails to embrace change, the organisation becomes less nimble and therefore less able to compete.

Organisational agility forms the final vector of the Service Excellence...