Can you tell readers about your company and what you do?
Agility in Mind helps organisations improve the way people work together to deliver first class services and products for their customers. Our consulting teams are experts at achieving alignment within organisations so that the work people undertake meets the business and strategic outcomes to respond to rapidly changing market demands. Simply put, we provide consulting and training services to help transform business outcomes.
What do you feel are the main challenges facing businesses at the moment?
It depends which sector they operate in, but the general challenges relate to changing customer expectations and behaviours. Much of this has been driven by the advent of digitally based services and with this comes the opportunity to innovate but also to be disrupted. Although technology brings opportunities, it is the people within businesses who will either respond to new challenges or be resistant to change, so this is why we focus upon people.
How can you support businesses to overcome these challenges?
Our services are designed and proven to help people believe things can be done differently, show them how to do this and give them the confidence that they and others in the organisation can and must continue to adapt to new opportunities. At the core of our services lie well-proven techniques including agile methods, that have been applied in sectors such as software development for a couple of decades or so. Today, these methods are used in all areas of business to bring people together to be more collaborative and business outcomes focused.
What do you feel are the business trends that are likely to come to the forefront in 2020?
Businesses generally will continue to be expected to adapt or die. The necessary changes will be expected to be achieved at an ever-increasing rate. More organisations will identify the need for transformation across the enterprise, with many adopting agile practices in key business areas such as marketing, finance, HR and operations. The opportunities for agile working within global marketing functions will grow, as organisations realise the power of a responsive voice to the world.
What are you most looking forward to in 2020?
We’re excited by our continued success with clients, globally. We’re the global partner for one of the world’s largest software manufacturers, so we’ll continue to support them and the many hundreds of people we work with. We have just begun to work with a global financial services brand, helping their marketing operations teams to improve how they communicate with their customers, so we’re excited to look forward to helping them see major success in 2020. In the UK, we’re helping a premium brand retailer take more of their business on-line, already achieving success but 2020 will see them achieve much much greater alignment between consumer need and service delivery. At a UK regional level, we’re excited about the energy for change in our major cities, hence our new office in Bristol, where we already have a number of clients, so we’re looking forward to becoming a greater presence here. Of course, we couldn’t achieve this without a great team, so seeing them develop and grow and welcoming new team members will be great to see.
The Business Leader Magazine, November – December 2019 – Issue 11