In turbulent markets, ‘Organisational Agility’, which Don Sull, a professor of management practice at the London Business School, defines as “the capacity to identify and capture opportunities more quickly than rivals do”, is invaluable.

He continues: “Traditionally, managers have been equated with ship captains, peering through a telescope deep into the future, setting a long-term vision, and proceeding steady as she goes. In the new normal, however, managers must proceed through an impenetrable fog that obscures any view of the future. By building the organisation’s strategic, portfolio, and operational agility, managers can position their companies to succeed, come what may.”

However, none of this is possible without ‘Informational Agility’, the automated provision of accurate and transparent real-time information on which to base business decisions. The organisational and operational benefits include the ability to offer higher levels of funding, to manage your risk more effectively and to reduce operational costs. By being able to get closer to clients, identify areas of concern immediately,  see things before they happen and act more quickly on changing circumstances, OSMO® from Vision Critical delivers true Informational Agility.

Recently, many financial companies have increased the frequency of their strategic and operational reviews and drawn, ad hoc, on different sources of data in order to understand the broader market context. They should not let these practices lapse as the economy recovers. Rather, companies ought to institutionalise the collection of real-time data, supplement these with periodic first-hand observations in the field, and disseminate information widely throughout the organisation. The fundamental premise is that the most reliable source of predictive financial information is within the accounting package.

Why not talk to us to see what can happen when you add Informational Agility to your operational ability?