Business Agility: Sustainable Prosperity in a Relentlessly Competitive World »

Michael H. Hugos is a thinker, speaker, and practitioner of business agility and agile IT system development methods. He spent six years as chief information officer (CIO) for Network Services Co., a multibillion-dollar national distribution cooperative where he developed a suite of supply chain and e-business systems that transformed the company's business model from old-line distributor to value-added provider of products and supply chain services. He is a two-time winner of the CIO 100 Award, and a recipient of the InformationWeek 500 Award and the Premier 100 Award for career achievement. He is also author of Building the Real-Time Enterprise and Essentials of Supply Chain Management, Second Edition, both published by Wiley.

Business Agility

Business agility determines whether your organi-zation will become a victim of our difficult economic times or if it will learn to reap new profits by continually responding to changing market conditions and evolving customer desires.

Author and business agility practitioner Michael Hugos explains that for everything from blue jeans to fuel oil and hotel rooms to accounting services, customers are willing to pay slightly higher prices for products and services if they are responsive to their needs. This breakthrough guide is your company's how-to manual for putting this profit transformation to work. Part of the Microsoft Executive Leadership Series, Business Agility: Sustainable Prosperity in a Relentlessly Competitive World outlines world-class approaches every "C-level" executive can employ to achieve competitive advantages and greater profitability.

This book discusses:

• Powerful trends shaping business and our lives in this century
• Challenges we must confront and master
• Practical principles, strategies, and technologies available to address these challenges
• Three underlying feedback loops that drive all responsive organizations
• Best ways to use technology to empower your people
• Two central themes for making a responsive organization happen: desire and innovation
• Case study examples from the author's own experience to illustrate concepts of responsiveness and techniques of agility

Business Agility: Sustainable Prosperity in a Relentlessly Competitive World is a succinct guide and road map for becoming more responsive, agile, and better positioned to deal with ongoing and constant change. Mykolas Rambus of Forbes Media observed, "Michael delivers a host of actionable new ideas for organizations who 'get' business agility, and an unflattering view of the future for those who don't. His fresh insights on how to win in today's turbulent marketplace are more relevant than ever."

Microsoft Executive Leadership Series: Series Foreword

Ch. 1 Responsiveness Trumps Efficiency 1

Ch. 2 Generating Alpha 17

Ch. 3 Principles of the Responsive Organization 35

Ch. 4 Speed, Simplicity, and Boldness 55

Ch. 5 Strategically Focused, Tactically Responsive 75

Ch. 6 Thriving in a Competitive, Fast-Paced World 97

Ch. 7 YaGatta Wanna 119

Ch. 8 The Essence of Innovation 135

App. A Executive Checklist for Monitoring Development Projects 151

App. B Seven Strategic Guidelines for Designing Systems 157

Index 159