What is business agility?

With the growing list of global headwinds, organizations must have the necessary tools to be adaptive and flexible in their ways of working.

Business agility is not a single methodology—it’s a way to describe the set of organizational capabilities and behaviors that enable a business to achieve its purpose with flexibility and agility. To address customer needs at the current speed of the market, organizations are turning to new technological advances like artificial intelligence (AI), generative AI (gen AI) and automation. These technologies help create higher-value customer experiences.

Chief executive officers (CEOs) are recognizing the demand for innovative approaches, digital transformation and agile practices. A recent study from the IBM Institute for Business Value found that over half of CEOs say that their organization is adopting AI agents and preparing to implement them at scale.

“As AI changes everything, success will no longer come from simply doing the same things better,” according to the 2025 CEOs guide, published by the IBM Institute for Business Value.

Business agility means seeking out and seizing on opportunities that benefit customers and stakeholders. Agile businesses respond quickly and effectively to threats and opportunities, while simultaneously creating greater value across customers, employee productivity and stakeholders.

There is no set of principles or prescribed set of practices for business agility. However, the foundation of business agility is valuing individuals and their interactions, driving strong decision-making initiatives and focusing on continue improvement across an entire organization.

The age of disruption, tense geopolitical climate and rapid changes in technology are all putting enormous pressure on organizations to be in an agile mindset and iterative development. What was initially a concept that emerged from software development has now been scaled to a broader scale, driving data-driven decision-making and smarter risk mitigation strategies.

A recent study from the Business Agility Institute posits that business agility is delivering measurable value despite the disruptions outside of their control. The report finds that resilience is the key differentiator when testing business agility. The data shows that agility correlates with strong customer satisfaction, greater operational efficiency and more predictable financial performance.

Participating organizations that materially improved their business agility capabilities between 2024–2025 saw a 10.3% average increase in revenue per employee. In contrast, organizations that reported decreasing levels of business agility saw a smaller 3.5% increase, according to the report.

While business agility is not an exact framework, it is a mindset that is developed through continuous learning and agile leadership. An agile organization requires cross-functional collaboration and an inclusive business environment.

An agile organization has many advantages, including breaking down organizational silos and bolstering cross-functional teams.

Business agility keeps the customer at the center of every decision. Teams gather feedback and analyze usage data to respond rapidly to changing needs.

This focus helps organizations to deliver products and services that solve real problems and create measurable value over time. By aligning priorities with customer outcomes, agile businesses improve satisfaction, streamline solution development and build trust.

Agile organizations empower teams to make informed decisions quickly. Leaders set clear objectives, while teams use real-time data and real-time analytics to act without unnecessary approvals.

This approach reduces delays, improves responsiveness and helps the business seize opportunities as they emerge. Faster decisions also limit risk by allowing teams to test, learn and adjust before small issues become costly problems.

Business agility can be applied to various types of business strategies. The agile way promotes a culture of ongoing learning and agile ways of improvement. Teams regularly inspect outcomes, measure performance and apply lessons learned.

This discipline drives higher quality, reduces defects and improves efficiency over time. By continuously refining processes and solutions, organizations stay competitive and better prepared for change.

Agile businesses adapt quickly to market shifts, technology changes and new regulations. Teams reprioritize work and adjust strategies without disrupting operations.

This adaptability increases resilience and helps organizations maintain momentum during uncertainty while continuing to deliver value.

An agile transformation requires an agile strategy. The ability of an organization to become agile hinges on its openness to flexible and dynamic planning, continuous feedback and optimization.

• Formalize a vision statement: Define where the organization aims to be in 1, 5 and 10 years. Collaborate with key stakeholders to craft a clear, compelling vision that can be shared internally and externally. This statement becomes the organization’s rallying point, guiding decision-making and aligning teams. The vision defines the destination, while an agile strategy determines how to get there.

• Create a roadmap: Build a flexible roadmap that links work directly to targeted outcomes rather than fixed deliverables. Identify key goals that advance the vision and include clear success criteria. Provide enough direction to start projects confidently while allowing teams to adapt and iterate. This approach helps teams decide when to invest, adjust or pivot based on results.

• Continually execute: Establish a regular cadence for reviewing initiatives, starting new work and sharing progress across the organization. Define how often leadership reviews strategy and how updates flow to employees. Allowing individual teams autonomy to choose their own meeting rhythms and tools can ensure alignment without sacrificing flexibility.

• Implement the strategy in one area: Start an agile strategy in a single area where success is likely. Use this pilot as a case study to demonstrate value, identify challenges and refine practices. Address issues like skill gaps or resistance through targeted training and coaching. After demonstrated, expand the strategy gradually across teams and departments.

A great example of a company with an agile mindset is Solar Coca-Cola, which is Coca-Cola’s second-largest bottler in Brazil. The company acquired other bottling companies within Brazil and simultaneously moved to further decentralize its business. This juncture is where Solar’s solution provider, CTI Global, an IBM Business Partner, stepped in to optimize processes to be faster and more accurate.

In just over five months, CTI designed and implemented an integrated planning solution that Solar is now maintaining on its own. It did this process through the integration of IBM Planning Analytics with Solar’s existing IBM Cognos® Analytics platform, which the company historically used for financial reporting.

A part of the knowledge transfer phase included designated members of the finance team learning how to use the business rules functions within the Planning Analytics platform. This knowledge share displays an agile approach, cross-collaboration and the competitive advantage Solar now has with domain expertise.

“The fact that we can rely on ourselves to adapt the system as needed gives us a huge amount of flexibility,” said Hermeson Anibal Marques, senior executive at Solar. “And that means our team is more efficient and more productive.”