Agility Why senior leaders must take Covid-19’s lessons in agility with them into the new normal
According to a survey by Bain, businesses that reported an increase in agility during the crisis were 2.5 times as likely to report an increase in productivity, along with better decision making, more innovation and more cross‑functional teaming.
People Faced with social distancing restrictions, many businesses proved highly agile in their people and operations policies. At the outset of the crisis, Asda, for example, closed its in-store counters and focused resources on online trading while M&S redeployed staff from its Clothing & Home to its Food unit.
During Covid-19, the consumer sector has played host to a plethora of agile businesses, from adapting ways of working to adopting entirely new business models. Executives must take the learnings of flexibility and speed with them into ‘business as usual’, or otherwise expect to be outrun by more agile competitors.
This period has proved working from home is possible and investment in technology such as Microsoft Teams, Slack and Zoom has helped to keep work colleagues and customers connected. This is likely to remain a feature of the workplace post-Covid. The demonstration that working from home can be done on a major scale, albeit with some attendant downsides, may make it harder for companies to resist requests for more flexible working such as job shares and more consistent working from home arrangements. The crisis may have encouraged some people to assess priorities, which could include spending more time with family and less on the daily commute, with consequences for talent retention.
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