I have been thinking more and more lately about the general economic conditions we are working in, and what businesses need to be doing to survive and thrive in today’s changing and challenging environment. We hear a lot about the importance of being agile but what does this really mean and why is it so critically important?
It was over a hundred years ago that Charles Darwin declared that ‘it is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change,’ but it seems that this could equally apply to the modern day business world. I read recently that successful businesses will be those that capitalise on their strategic agility, that are capable of responding with speed and flexibility, and that can quickly change direction in response to a rapidly evolving international market place.
So, what does this mean for us at Saffron? Well, we need to move quickly too, to continue to exploit new technologies and then use these to offer our clients and end users a truly individualised and personal service. Our reputation and our promise to deliver extra value are not built around bold statements but on our ability to always think about tomorrow as if it were today, to deliver a speed of response that is second to none and to be the best at what we do – all the time, every time.
Agility is not just about our internal culture; it’s about how we interact with and really get to know our customers. It’s about innovation and creativity, responding to customers’ needs before they even know themselves what these are and thus giving them a reason to come back, time and again. Agility is about competitive edge, and maintaining that edge by making sense of the future even though we can’t always be sure quite what it will look like. It’s about remaining fiercely committed to delivering the most positive experience possible, whatever form that might take, and never allowing complacency to set in.
