12
AGILITY AS A COMPETITVE FACTOR
02
AGILITY AND COMPANY PERFORMANCE
The second Agile Performer Index provides continuing evidence of the measurable financial gain from higher agility. A direct comparison of overall agility levels with financial performance reveals that the more agile companies are between 1.5 and 1.7 times more successful than low agility companies.
Furthermore, the results suggests a decreasing return to increasing agility that is not evident in the 2017 data. Performance increases with increasing agility for the first three quartiles are followed by a performance decline for firms in the top quartile. However, by virtue of the larger and more diverse sample in this study, this result masks a third important contextual factor, the industry’s uncertainty. In low uncertainty environments, where changing customer demands or digital disruption is (relatively) lower, such as construction, natural resources, and the public sector, agility may not confer the same advantages as in industries where the pace of change and uncertainty is higher.
The second Agile Performer Index confirms:
Agility is still key to being successful in a dynamic, competitive environment. However, there are several other factors also influencing the correlation between agility and performance.