Pub. 2 2019-2020 Issue 4

12 Agility and Anticipation — A Vital Partnership W hile exponential change is always moving, businesses and even whole industries traditionally move slower than they should, often finding themselves disrupted and working hard at being agile alone. During the Coronavirus pandemic, all industries were disrupted in one way or another. Many had to close their doors for the time being and forfeit the growth and profits they make from in-person customers. Pandemic or not, the escalating exponential pace of disruption and change should not be surprising. The Three Digital Accelerators of exponential change that I first wrote about way back in 1983, which include computing/processing power, digital storage and bandwidth, continue to create a predictable path that takes us to transformation. Given the initial slow pace of exponential change, it makes sense that agility is the established tool of many organizations— the act of reaction. Moreover, many organizations see agility as the single most vital strategy to use when dealing with digital disruption. Agility Isn’t Enough Exponential change has reached a tipping point that creates problems and disruptions in both number and magnitude faster than agile organizations can handle. Organizations being disrupted by digital technology indicate that agility alone is not Daniel Burrus