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Tag: agility

  • 9 Simple Ways to Drive Business Agility and Accelerate Growth

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    Small companies have one key advantage big companies often struggle to achieve: agility. In a world of accelerated change, an organization’s ability to pivot quickly can make the difference between success and failure. When it comes to pivoting, small businesses often have a big leg up over their big business competitors. Here are nine simple ways to increase your business’s agility while accelerating growth. 

    1. Obsessed with customers 

    Customers come first. Best-in-class organizations keep a close check on customer feedback and quickly address customer needs. They also anticipate changes in customer demands and preferences. 

    2. Energized by leadership 

    Companies that prioritize agility have leaders who lead by example. These leaders are full of energy and get their work done by encouraging their team members to do great things and then allowing them the freedom to perform. 

    3. Aligned by clarity 

    Agility means fast execution. It’s easier to execute fast when everyone is aligned with common goals. The highest performing organizations have a single direction, and everyone knows how their work relates to the big picture. 

    4. Empowered by simplicity 

    Simple rules and less bureaucracy make for a more agile organization. The fastest organizations are also the simplest organizations. Complexity slows you down. 

    5. Enabled by ownership 

    The most successful organizations have a meritocratic culture, and they are fair to everyone. This inculcates ownership in employees for the success of the organization and themselves. 

    6. Attracted by winning 

    A simple way to attract the best talent in the industry is to show your organization is a great place to work. When good talent comes together, you attract more good talent and create positive momentum for success. 

    7. Disrupted by innovation 

    Successful organizations stay ahead of the curve and are also the most innovative. New ideas and initiatives draw the attention of both customers and employees. 

    8. Ratcheted by challenge 

    Best-in-class organizations push the envelope. They encourage people to stretch themselves by giving and taking constructive criticism and expecting the best from everyone. 

    9. Accelerated by collaboration 

    Collaboration and trust-based partnerships, both within and outside the organization, result in win-win situations and help in building long-term business relationships. When your people communicate better, they get more and better work done. 

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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    Peter Economy

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  • Humanoid robots are learning to fall well | TechCrunch

    Humanoid robots are learning to fall well | TechCrunch

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    The savvy marketers at Boston Dynamics produced two major robotics news cycles last week. The larger of the two was, naturally, the electric Atlas announcement. As I write this, the sub-40 second video is steadily approaching five million views. A day prior, the company tugged at the community’s heart strings when it announced that the original hydraulic Atlas was being put out to pasture, a decade after its introduction.

    The accompanying video was a celebration of the older Atlas’ journey from DARPA research project to an impressively nimble bipedal ’bot. A minute in, however, the tone shifts. Ultimately, “Farewell to Atlas” is as much a celebration as it is a blooper reel. It’s a welcome reminder that for every time the robot sticks the landing on video there are dozens of slips, falls and sputters.

    Image Credits: Boston Dynamics

    I’ve long championed this sort of transparency. It’s the sort of thing I would like to see more from the robotics world. Simply showcasing the highlight reel does a disservice to the effort that went into getting those shots. In many cases, we’re talking years of trial and error spent getting robots to look good on camera. When you only share the positive outcomes, you’re setting unrealistic expectations. Bipedal robots fall over. In that respect, at least, they’re just like us. As Agility put it recently, “Everyone falls sometimes, it’s how we get back up that defines us.” I would take that a step further, adding that learning how to fall well is equally important.

    The company’s newly appointed CTO, Pras Velagapudi, recently told me that seeing robots fall on the job at this stage is actually a good thing. “When a robot is actually out in the world doing real things, unexpected things are going to happen,” he notes. “You’re going to see some falls, but that’s part of learning to run a really long time in real-world environments. It’s expected, and it’s a sign that you’re not staging things.”

    A quick scan of Harvard’s rules for falling without injury reflects what we intuitively understand about falling as humans:

    1. Protect your head
    2. Use your weight to direct your fall
    3. Bend your knees
    4. Avoid taking other people with you

    As for robots, this IEEE Spectrum piece from last year is a great place to start.

    “We’re not afraid of a fall—we’re not treating the robots like they’re going to break all the time,” Boston Dynamics CTO Aaron Saunders told the publication last year. “Our robot falls a lot, and one of the things we decided a long time ago [is] that we needed to build robots that can fall without breaking. If you can go through that cycle of pushing your robot to failure, studying the failure, and fixing it, you can make progress to where it’s not falling. But if you build a machine or a control system or a culture around never falling, then you’ll never learn what you need to learn to make your robot not fall. We celebrate falls, even the falls that break the robot.”

    Image Credits: Boston Dynamics

    The subject of falling also came up when I spoke with Boston Dynamics CEO Robert Playter ahead of the electric Atlas’ launch. Notably, the short video begins with the robot in a prone position. The way the robot’s legs arc around is quite novel, allowing the system to stand up from a completely flat position. At first glance, it almost feels as though the company is showing off, using the flashy move simply as a method to showcase the extremely robust custom-built actuators.

    “There will be very practical uses for that,” Playter told me. “Robots are going to fall. You’d better be able to get up from prone.” He adds that the ability to get up from a prone position may also be useful for charging purposes.

    Much of Boston Dynamics’ learnings around falling came from Spot. While there’s generally more stability in the quadrupedal form factor (as evidenced from decades trying and failing to kick the robots over in videos), there are simply way more hours of Spot robots working in real-world conditions.

    Image Credits: Agility Robotics

    “Spot’s walking something like 70,000 kms a year on factory floors, doing about 100,000 inspections per month,” adds Playter. “They do fall, eventually. You have to be able to get back up. Hopefully you get your fall rate down — we have. I think we’re falling once every 100-200 kms. The fall rate has really gotten small, but it does happen.”

    Playter adds that the company has a long history of being “rough” on its robots. “They fall, and they’ve got to be able to survive. Fingers can’t fall off.”

    Watching the above Atlas outtakes, it’s hard not to project a bit of human empathy onto the ’bot. It really does appear to fall like a human, drawing its extremities as close to its body as possible, to protect them from further injury.

    When Agility added arms to Digit, back in 2019, it discussed the role they play in falling. “For us, arms are simultaneously a tool for moving through the world — think getting up after a fall, waving your arms for balance, or pushing open a door — while also being useful for manipulating or carrying objects,” co-founder Jonathan Hurst noted at the time.

    I spoke a bit to Agility about the topic at Modex earlier this year. Video of a Digit robot falling over on a convention floor a year prior had made the social media rounds. “With a 99% success rate over about 20 hours of live demos, Digit still took a couple of falls at ProMat,” Agility noted at the time. “We have no proof, but we think our sales team orchestrated it so they could talk about Digits quick-change limbs and durability.”

    As with the Atlas video, the company told me that something akin to a fetal position is useful in terms of protecting the robot’s legs and arms.

    The company has been using reinforcement learning to help fallen robots right themselves. Agility shut off Digit’s obstacle avoidance for the above video to force a fall. In the video, the robot uses its arms to mitigate the fall as much as possible. It then utilizes its reinforcement learnings to return to a familiar position from which it is capable of standing again with a robotic pushup.

    One of humanoid robots’ main selling points is their ability to slot into existing workflows — these factories and warehouses are known as “brownfield,” meaning they weren’t custom built for automation. In many existing cases of factory automation, errors mean the system effectively shuts down until a human intervenes.

    “Rescuing a humanoid robot is not going to be trivial,” says Playter, noting that these systems are heavy and can be difficult to manually right. “How are you going to do that if it can’t get itself off the ground?”

    If these systems are truly going to ensure uninterrupted automation, they’ll need to fall well and get right back up again.

    “Every time Digit falls, we learn something new,” adds Velagapudi. “When it comes to bipedal robotics, falling is a wonderful teacher.”

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    Brian Heater

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  • The loneliness of the robotic humanoid | TechCrunch

    The loneliness of the robotic humanoid | TechCrunch

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    Perhaps a few years from now, the halls of the Georgia World Congress Center will be peppered with humanoid robots the week of Modex. In 2024, however, Digit stands alone at the supply chain show. It’s a testament to Agility’s healthy head start over competitors like Figure, Tesla, 1X and Apptronik. This time last year at Modex (the Chicago version of the conference), Digit had something of an industrial automation coming out party. A line of the bipedal robots were moving totes to a nearby conveyor belt at select times throughout the week.

    This week in Atlanta, a rotating cast of eight Digits are working each day from show opening to close. This time, however, the blue and silver robots are doing something a bit different. The demos showcase lineside replenishment and tote retrieval with a flow rack designed for automotive manufacturing. Agility tells TechCrunch that it is currently working with automotive customers — though it has yet to release any names.

    Famously, Ford was among Agility’s first proponents, announcing a partnership way back at CES 2020. Ultimately, plans to put Digit to work making last-mile deliveries fizzled, as the company instead pivoted focus to the nearer-term issue of warehouse staffing. That proved to be a canny move, as labor figures still have yet to return post-COVID. Former Agility CEO Damion Shelton told me last week that last-mile is still on the table, but there’s more than enough to focus on in the warehouse and manufacturing sectors to keep the company occupied.

    Putting together a C-suite has been an important piece of the company’s growth over the past 12 months. Co-founders Shelton and Jonathan Hurst have shifted roles, from CEO and CTO to president and chief robotics officer, respectively. A week ago today, former Magic Leap CEO Peggy Johnson took the chief executive role over from Shelton. Last year, the company named Fetch founder and CEO Melonee Wise to the CTO role and brought former Apple and Ford executive Aindrea Campbell in as COO.

    The leadership changes point to a company taking commercialization more seriously. They also put Agility in rare air among top robotics companies, with women in five of its nine C-suite roles.

    Agility is ramping up production volumes, with plans to hit “high double-digit” production of its bipedal robot by end of year. This week at Modex, the company took the wraps off Agility Arc, deployment and fleet management software for Digit.

    “The automation platform has all of the things you would expect from a fleet management system, in terms of battery, charging management, workflow management and robot tasking,” Wise tells TechCrunch. “But it also has the other aspects that you need for deploying and configuring a system and remotely monitoring and supporting the system. It’s a single pane of glass that allows you to basically do everything related to managing a fleet of Digits.”

    Johnson, who previously helmed Magic Leap’s shaky pivot into enterprise, says the new enterprise software gave her confidence that her new company has surer footing than her last.

    “The thing that was really encouraging when I learned about the new cloud automation system is that it’s such a sign of the maturation of the company,” she says. “This is not just a device, it’s something that’s meant to integrate. So often at [Johnson’s former employer] Microsoft, that would be the trip-up point. You would have some isolated system over here that wasn’t integrated with everything else and didn’t provide the value that it could. So, the fact that it will be able to integrate with WMS systems and other things the company is already using is a big weight off them.”

    Image Credits: Brian Heater

    For Johnson, Modex has been a massive learning experience. She spoke to us last week from Japan, where she had recently competed in the Tokyo marathon. She hopped on a plane back to the States over the weekend specifically to get a first-hand view of the supply chain/logistics world of which she is now a part. “I wanted to make sure I was here to see not only the customers, but the environment the devices work in. I’m going to spend a lot of time walking around today and immerse myself in that.”

    Johnson’s primary pitch as CEO is a quick path to ROI. That’s achievable in no small part to the fact that Digit is available through a RaaS (robotics-as-a-service) model, which has become an increasingly popular way to convince companies to take the leap. Customers can now pilot these systems without having to worry about massive upfront costs.

    It’s those customers who ultimately shape Digit’s future. The model on the floor demonstrating an automotive workflow has a new pair of end effectors. Rather than the flipper-style appendages the company has been showcasing, this Digit has four digits of its own on each hand, with two pairs of hooked fingers facing in opposite directions. This isn’t dexterous mobile manipulation, however. Instead, it’s designed to do the thing that Digit has been doing all along: transporting totes.

    The totes here are quite wide however (as is custom on the automotive line), prohibiting the robot from embracing it with an arm on each side. Instead the effectors grasp the front of the totes. This method also affords a more stable grip on a box that often has heavy, untethered objects rolling around inside.

    In the not too distant future, Wise envisions a version of Digit that can swap out its end effectors as needed.

    “When you look at the end effector specifically, there’s about 60 years of prior art,” she says. “All of [Modex], if you look around, all of these robot arms have different end effectors. That’s a very well understood thing. There’s something called ‘end of arm tooling.’ It’s swappable. What we’re going to be driving toward as a product is having swappable end of arm tooling and eventually make that an automated process.”

    With what could be perceived as a dig at some of the humanoid robot competition, Shelton notes, “but interestingly, 0% of the solutions are five-fingered, 27-degrees of freedom hands.” He adds, “there have been some of our competitors who have been on the record saying that they are using a five-fingered hand basically as a branding exercise.”

    As far as what the competition should be focused on, Wise believes Agility’s peers should center on safety — a huge concern when introducing new technologies into a warehouse setting. “We need to, collectively as an industry, get our safety story straight,” she says. “We as an industry need to come together and decide what the safety norms are.”

    Johnson adds that companies need to focus on the task at hand. “Stay focused on the here and now and what can be done,” she says. “Everyone needs a roadmap, but stay focused and prove it out.”

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    Brian Heater

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  • Humanoid robots face a major test with Amazon’s Digit pilots | TechCrunch

    Humanoid robots face a major test with Amazon’s Digit pilots | TechCrunch

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    Announced amid a deluge of news at this week’s Delivering the Future event in Seattle was word that Amazon will begin testing Agility’s Digit in a move that could bring the bipedal robot to its nationwide fulfillment centers. It’s baby steps as these things go, and such early-stage deals don’t necessary mean something bigger down the road.

    Take, for instance Agility’s Ford pilot, when the startup was exploring last-mile delivery as a potential way forward. Not too long after, the firm began focusing Digit’s output exclusively on warehouse and factory work.

    In April of last year, Amazon named Agility one of the first five recipients of the company’s $1 billion Industrial Innovation Fund. While being included in the fund doesn’t guarantee that Amazon will utilize your technology down the road, it’s a pretty clear indicator that the retail giant is — at the very least — interested in its potential.

    “The Innovation Fund is really about exploring what’s possible out there,” Amazon Robotics chief technologist Tye Brady told me in an interview this week. “It’s about understanding practical real-world examples, as well.”

    The executive adds that, while Amazon Robotics has thus far exclusively traded in wheeled locomotion, legs present a good deal of possibility.

    “We are interested in walking robots,” says Brady. “I find that very interesting, the ability to move on different terrains is interesting. We’re also interested in what works — and frankly what doesn’t work — about it. The humanoid form is really interesting. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing. We’re experimentalists at heart. We’re gonna figure that out. We’re going to do a pilot and see how that works out.”

    The company’s focus on wheeled AMRs (autonomous mobile robots) dates back to its 2012 purchase of Kiva Systems, whose platforms have formed the foundation for the whole of Amazon Robotics. There are currently 750,000 AMRs deployed across the company’s warehouse network. The company has launched non-AMR systems, as well, including picking arms like Sparrow, which was launched during the same event last year.

    It’s difficult to overstate how profound an impact Amazon’s efforts have had on the rest of the industrial robotics space. For one thing, the company has turned up the pressure for the competition to automate in order to meet growing customer expectations of same- and next-day deliveries. For another, the decision to stop supporting Kiva customers outside the Amazon ecosystem led directly to the foundation of some of the industry’s biggest names, including Locus Robotics and 6 River Systems.

    A system needs to demonstrate an increase in productivity in order for Amazon to integrate it into its growing robotics ecosystem. It’s less innovation for innovation’s sake, and more scoping out any possible advantage that will get goods to customers in less time. Including drones.

    How, precisely, humanoid robots specifically and bipedal robots more generally might slot in remains to be seen. The other big hurdle there is that any new system needs to match the company’s almost unthinkable scale.

    There are a number of startups vying to own the humanoid robotics crown at the moment, including 1X, Figure and Tesla. Agility’s Digit is the least human-looking of the bunch, but it’s got a ton of funding and a massive head start. The company also recently opened a new factory in Salem, Oregon, which it claims can produce up to 100,000 Digits a year once fully online.

    There’s no shortage of excitement around the category, but proving things out at scale is another question entirely. Whether Digit succeeds or fails at the tasks laid out for it could have a profound impact on the trajectory of humanoid robots generally. Much like the Kiva Systems have proven a major catalyst for AMRs, if Amazon successfully rolls out Digit at scale, suddenly everyone will want to get their hands on some humanoid workers.

    The biggest talking point around the form factor is the fact that humans build workspaces for other humans. That includes shelving heights, terrain, aisle width and the staircase, the bane of the ARM’s existence. From this standpoint a humanoid robot suddenly makes a lot more sense. The reality of things is that most companies operate in brownfield sites. That is to say their warehouses and factories generally aren’t built with specific automation solutions in mind. Humanoid robots slot nicely into a brownfield site.

    Of course, Amazon has the resources to build any facility it wants, so it’s logical that many of its own robots are effectively working in greenfield sites. Those limitations are less of a concern for Amazon than much of the competition, but obviously if an effective system can slot into the existing workflow with minimal friction, that’s certainly ideal.

    Image Credits: Amazon

    Brady confirms, however, that Digit isn’t the end-all, be-all of Amazon’s plans for mobile manipulation.

    “When you start to bring [sensing, compute and actuation] together in interesting combinations, really unique things start to happen,” he says. “We’re world leaders when it comes to mobile robots. And now we are very much in the business of manipulating not only packages, but also objects. And to bring them together, it’s exciting to see all of the possibilities.”

    That could mean alternate ways in. For instance, Amazon knows how to build both an AMR and a robot arm. If one were to effectively mount the latter to the former, they would have a kind of mobile manipulation on their hands.

    “You see with the Agility robot — you can think of that as a mobile manipulator,” says Brady. “That has interest to us. The mode of mobility has particular interest to us, because we don’t happen to have done a lot of work in bipedal robots. But absolutely, we could combine that with identification systems, manipulation systems, sortation systems. Anything and everything we’ll do to innovate for our customer and improve safety for employees. We’re getting there with the core fundamentals.”

    If for any reason Digit fails to stick the landing, that certainly doesn’t mean the end of it or bipedal robots generally. Perhaps it simply doesn’t sit comfortably in Amazon’s existing work flows. Maybe the robot’s not quite ready for Amazon scale or Amazon’s not quite in a place where Digit makes sense.

    Regardless, it would be smart for anyone remotely interested in bipedal robots to sit up and take notice here. The pilots could well have a profound impact on the way we think of the category, going forward.

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    Brian Heater

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  • How Adaptive Leaders Find Success During Market Volatility | Entrepreneur

    How Adaptive Leaders Find Success During Market Volatility | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    If there is one thing we know for certain (other than death and taxes) it’s that volatility and the markets go hand in hand. We’ve seen the stock market crash of 1929, the dot-com bubble of the early 2000s, the financial crisis of 2008, the recent surge in blockchain and its related cryptocurrency rise and fall, the Covid-19 pandemic, and global tensions all demonstrate periods of marked volatility.

    My area of specialization, which is the Small-Micro Cap IPO market, has recently been extremely volatile. 2021 emerged as a robust year for initial public offerings, driven by favorable economic conditions, a surge in technological innovation, strong investor appetite and the popularity of SPACs. 2022 and 2023 on the other hand, have been two of the worst years in the IPO sector in past decades, primarily due to significant market corrections influenced by economic factors, geopolitical events and heightened investor caution.

    Throughout my 35-year journey as an entrepreneur, I’ve traversed diverse experiences, from encountering significant hardships — particularly during the tumultuous days of the great recession — to celebrating success. These hardships and setbacks became powerful lessons in resilience, compelling me to explore innovative solutions when adversity was overpowering. In these moments, I gleaned profound insights into the pivotal importance of adaptability.

    In my current role, as the CEO of Exchange Listing, I’ve had the privilege of leading companies through the ever-changing landscape of IPOs, while at the same time scaling my business. Over the years, I’ve learned that in this volatile environment, adaptive leadership is not just a choice; it’s a necessity.

    Related: Adaptive Leadership Lessons For Transformational Growth

    The challenges of making informed decisions during market volatility

    Market volatility refers to the degree of variation in financial market prices over time. It often stems from a combination of factors, including economic data, geopolitical events, investor sentiment and unexpected events like natural disasters or, as we all learned in 2020, global pandemics. Volatility is typically measured using metrics such as standard deviation or beta.

    Navigating the intricacies of making informed decisions during market volatility presents a formidable challenge. Market turbulence, shaped by various factors such as economic data, geopolitical shifts and unexpected events, can trigger emotional responses that lead to impulsive choices. Short-term focus can eclipse long-term objectives, compounded by the overwhelming flood of information. In times of volatility, the natural inclination may be to minimize risk, but this approach could lead to missed opportunities. Successful decision-making in such an environment requires adaptability, resilience and a commitment to remaining well-informed.

    As an adaptive leader, in the small/micro-cap IPO sector, my decision-making process is grounded in gathering real-time market intelligence from diverse sources. This strategy ensures that I maintain a high level of awareness and stay continually informed of the most recent developments in the dynamic, ever-changing IPO financial landscape.

    The importance of triangulating information from trusted and relevant sources ensures that my understanding is comprehensive and reliable. Before implementing any strategies or decisions, I prioritize stress-testing my theories with my advisors and team, valuing their insights and perspectives. I have found that a collaborative approach helps refine and strengthen my choices and avoid making emotion-based decisions.

    Understanding the adaptive leader

    Adaptive leadership is distinct from other leadership theories and styles because it focuses on mobilizing individuals and organizations to adapt to changing environments and address difficult issues. It encourages leaders to view challenges as opportunities for growth and learning rather than simply seeking technical solutions.

    The term “adaptive leadership” was developed by Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Entrepreneurs are naturally adaptive leaders who seek out and thrive in environments characterized by uncertainty, rapid change and multifaceted challenges. Their ability to identify opportunities within chaos, pivot when needed and continuously learn from setbacks positions them as adaptive leaders by nature.

    Entrepreneurs possess the resilience to confront unexpected obstacles head-on, the agility to adjust strategies in response to shifting market dynamics and the willingness to embrace innovation and experimentation as integral parts of their leadership journey. This innate adaptability enables entrepreneurs to navigate turbulent waters, drive innovation and lead their ventures toward success amidst complexity and ambiguity.

    Taking time on the balcony, a concept coined by Heifetz and Linsky provides adaptive leaders with a valuable vantage point to gain perspective and assess complex situations objectively. It allows them to step back from the heat of the moment, observe patterns and make more informed decisions. This reflective practice is a strategic advantage, enabling adaptive leaders to navigate through ambiguity and volatility with greater clarity and insight. I value my time on the balcony, where I look to gain perspective when tackling pressing challenges, looking backward and forward at the same time.

    Related: Why an Adaptive Mindset Matters for Entrepreneurs

    Adaptive leadership in action

    In the throes of market volatility, adaptive leadership takes on even greater significance for entrepreneurs. It’s not just a theoretical concept; it’s a practical necessity for navigating the turbulent waters of today’s business environment. As entrepreneurs, we know that market volatility is the new normal, and adaptive leadership is the compass that helps us chart our course through these challenging times.

    Consider this scenario: Market dynamics are in constant flux, and as entrepreneurs, we’re tasked with making pivotal decisions. Adaptive leadership starts with a deep understanding of ourselves and our teams, allowing us to pivot swiftly when faced with unexpected challenges. It’s about being agile, not just in response to market turbulence but as an integral part of our leadership style. During bouts of market volatility, adaptive leaders see these disruptions as opportunities for innovation and growth. For instance, when faced with economic downturns or supply chain disruptions, adaptive leaders and entrepreneurs might rethink their business models, explore new revenue streams or harness technology to adapt to changing market conditions. This proactive, agile mindset is what sets us apart and helps us thrive even in uncertain market environments.

    Market volatility is a constant presence in business. In recent years, we have seen how market volatility can be influenced by countless factors — and while some may struggle, others flourish amid this turbulence. These individuals, the adaptive leaders, possess a unique skill set that equips them to navigate this volatility and make informed decisions that drive long-term success. The ability to adapt and make informed decisions in an ever-changing financial landscape is a sign of leadership excellence. Adaptive leaders not only survive market volatility but thrive in it, emerging stronger and more resilient with each challenge they face.

    Related: How to Demonstrate Leadership Through Market Volatility

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    Peter Goldstein

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  • Don’t Fall Behind: Adaptive Leadership Tips and Strategies | Entrepreneur

    Don’t Fall Behind: Adaptive Leadership Tips and Strategies | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    In today’s ever-changing business landscape, adaptability has become a crucial skill for business leaders. The digital era brings constant innovation and disruption, rendering traditional leadership models inadequate.

    To succeed in this dynamic environment, leaders must embrace adaptive leadership — a transformative approach that enables them to navigate change, foster resilience and drive organizational success. In this article, we’ll explore the concept of adaptive leadership and provide actionable insights supported by research and case studies — all while emphasizing the importance of a people-centered approach.

    Understanding adaptive leadership

    Adaptive leadership is a forward-thinking approach that embraces flexibility, learning and mobilizing people toward a shared purpose. It acknowledges the inherent uncertainty and complexity of the digital era, requiring leaders to develop a deep understanding of the changing landscape and empower their teams to adapt, innovate, and respond effectively to change.

    According to a study conducted by Deloitte, adaptive leadership is essential for managing the challenges posed by rapid technological advancements, shifting market dynamics and evolving consumer preferences. The study emphasizes the need for leaders to develop a flexible mindset and cultivate a culture of resilience in their organizations.

    One popular example of adaptive leadership is the transformation of Airbnb amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. As global travel came to a standstill in 2020, under CEO Brian Chesky’s leadership, Airbnb swiftly modified its business model to meet the changing landscape. The company embraced remote work, prioritized health and safety, and leaned into local experiences.

    This agile response enabled Airbnb to navigate the crisis successfully and identify new growth opportunities. By staying connected with their community, actively listening to customer needs, and quickly adapting their offerings, Airbnb showcased the power of adaptive leadership in overcoming adversity and thriving in a rapidly evolving environment.

    Related: Why an Adaptive Mindset Matters for Entrepreneurs

    Developing leadership agility

    Adaptive leaders must continually develop their own agility as leaders. This involves cultivating a growth mindset and actively seeking opportunities for personal and professional development. Engaging in ongoing learning, attending leadership development programs, and seeking mentorship or coaching are valuable ways to enhance leadership agility. Leaders can effectively navigate complex challenges and inspire their teams to embrace change by continually expanding their knowledge and honing their skills.

    Implementing adaptive leadership

    To implement adaptive leadership effectively, entrepreneurs must lead by example and inspire their teams to embrace innovation and resilience. Strategies such as encouraging a culture of innovation, promoting experimentation and resilience, and leveraging data-driven insights are crucial.

    1. Encouraging a Culture of Innovation: Entrepreneurs should foster an environment that encourages and rewards innovation. By providing space for creative thinking, supporting risk-taking, and fostering a sense of psychological safety, entrepreneurs can empower their teams to generate new ideas, explore uncharted territories, and adapt to changing circumstances. Celebrating and learning from both successes and failures creates a culture where innovation thrives.

    2. Promoting Agility and Experimentation: Adaptive leaders understand the importance of agility and experimentation in the face of rapid change. Encourage your teams to embrace an experimental mindset, where learning from iterative processes and embracing uncertainty is valued. By promoting agility, entrepreneurs can respond swiftly to emerging trends, adjust strategies, and seize new opportunities. This mindset allows organizations to stay ahead of the curve and adapt proactively.

    3. Leveraging Technology and Data-Driven Insights: In the digital era, leveraging technology is crucial for adaptive leadership. Embrace emerging technologies and invest in digital capabilities that enhance business processes, enable better decision-making, and deliver personalized customer experiences. Furthermore, entrepreneurs can harness the power of data analytics to gain insights into customer behavior, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions that ultimately drive growth.

    4. Building Resilient Teams: Adaptive leadership goes beyond individual leaders; it involves building resilient teams that can thrive in dynamic environments. Leaders should create a supportive and inclusive work culture where team members feel empowered and encouraged to take ownership of their work. Promoting open communication, fostering collaboration, and recognizing the contributions of team members are key to building resilient teams. By investing in the growth and well-being of their teams, leaders can create a foundation for adaptability and high performance.

    Related: 20 Ways to Achieve Street Smart Wisdom for Leaders and Entrepreneurs

    Adaptive leadership is essential for entrepreneurs and business leaders in a world of constant change and disruption. By embracing innovation as a driving force, implementing strategies that promote adaptability, and leveraging technology and data-driven insights, entrepreneurs can position their organizations for success in the digital age. Airbnb’s transformation amidst the COVID-19 pandemic exemplifies the power of adaptive leadership in navigating challenges, identifying new opportunities, and fostering resilience. By embodying adaptive leadership principles and cultivating a people-centered approach, entrepreneurs can thrive in uncertainty and lead their organizations to new heights.

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    Ryan McGrath

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  • How Mobile Apps Can Help You Establish and Maintain an Agile Workspace | Entrepreneur

    How Mobile Apps Can Help You Establish and Maintain an Agile Workspace | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Agile has been around for some time, and it’s proven its worth, which is why it’s here to stay. Agile adoption is no longer a luxurious approach that companies may consider; it has become an essential ingredient for success. With over 71% of companies adopting agile methodologies and an astounding success rate of 64%, it’s no longer a matter of trial and error.

    The method works once you’ve established it correctly, but the challenging part is always maintaining consistency and keeping up, and that’s what we’re going to talk about in this article — how having an internal communication mobile app can play an integral role in maintaining and flourishing your agile workspace. But before we delve into that, let’s define what “agile” means.

    Related: Why You Should Consider Creating an Internal Communication App for Your Employees

    What is meant by an agile workplace?

    An agile workplace is an environment that works according to agile methodologies. In an agile workspace, the main focus is on embracing flexibility, adaptability and being able to smoothly collaborate on certain tasks on a project. Embracing these concepts will give birth to a highly dynamic team that collaborates seamlessly, communicates effectively and works in a fast-paced work environment to achieve goals and complete projects efficiently. If we break down an agile workplace, we can summarize them in the following points:

    1. Communication: Jumpstarting your agile project

    Everything gets done correctly through proper communication. Agile is all about being able to talk about your progress openly and letting everyone know if you need help with something. If you have an internal communication mobile app with a messenger feature, you can easily create relevant groups where team members can talk about their progress and let everyone know if they need help.

    2. Collaboration: Piecing together the puzzle of project success

    A puzzle is not complete without all its pieces, and in a project, everyone is responsible for a piece. Collaboration means accurately and effectively putting these pieces of the puzzle together to create something that is meaningful and useful. It involves sharing knowledge and skills, and streamlining communication will result in an enhanced collaboration that will seamlessly complete the puzzle in a timely manner. Through an internal communication app, your employees will be able to share their progress through a channel feature, where each project can have a certain channel, and members of the project will be able to announce their progress periodically.

    3. Agile alertness: Enhancing adaptivity with mobile app notifications

    Adaptivity means being able to respond to change quickly and effectively, and we all know that 99% of the time, the answer to the question, “Didn’t you get the memo?” is “no.” On the other hand, the nagging but useful feature of an internal communication mobile app notification system does not disappoint. This will eliminate any lagging or delay in the project caused by awaiting an answer from a superior or a team member.

    4. Accelerating agile success via swift information flow

    An agile workplace is characterized by short iterative sprints of fast-paced exchanges and swift and effective passing around of information, and an internal communication mobile app relieves you from taking the scenic route by the simple act of sending and receiving a message via a direct chat feature, knowing what to do and doing it with no fuss and no delays.

    5. Empowering remote teams by bridging the gap

    Last but not least, the rise of remote work is a force to be reckoned with, and the need to take the necessary steps to accommodate such a change is no longer optional but an immediate necessity. Having an internal communication mobile app is the ideal solution for all your employees who are working remotely to ensure clear and concise communication so that teams can work together regardless of where they are.

    Related: Why Effective Internal Communication is Critical to an Organization’s Well-Being

    How can you create an internal communications app?

    Thanks to no-code technology, you can create a mobile app for your company in a very short amount of time — and it will not just be a web-based app; rather, it will be an actual native application that is compatible with Android and iOS devices.

    Developing an app from scratch will cost you massive amounts of money and take a considerable amount of time, as you would have to hire a team of developers or pay a company to build it for you, which is a huge hassle. By using app-building tools, you will be able to build an internal communication app for your company in a matter of minutes and utilize all the top features that will propel your company forward.

    Having an internal communication mobile app with features like messenger, channels and direct chat not only keeps employees engaged, it also acts as a cornerstone to successfully establish and maintain an agile workplace. Additionally, having an internal communication app helps streamline communications, enhances collaboration, promotes adaptivity, accelerates information flow and empowers remote teams, which will result in faster delivery of your business’s projects and higher customer engagement as well.

    Related: What Makes a Business Agile? And How Can You Achieve It?

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    Omar El Bahr

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  • 3 Ways You Can Harness The Benefits of Your Flat Organization for Growth

    3 Ways You Can Harness The Benefits of Your Flat Organization for Growth

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Organizational structures have been a hot topic of debate in the business world recently, due in no small part to the events of the last few years. Many companies simply lacked the agility to respond to all the disruption. However, others were stuck in place as conflicting leadership decisions pulled them in different directions.

    These companies’ chains of command got so bogged down that decisions began to slow and communication experienced delays. According to MIT Sloan Management Review, almost 40% of workers felt that the level of bureaucracy at their companies was especially problematic during the first six months of the pandemic. Employees also noted the stability of priorities (36%) and amount of red tape (34%) as hindrances to employers’ abilities to respond to pandemic-related changes. Ironically, these impediments are the unintended consequence of successful growth.

    If you think about it, a company’s organizational structure is akin to a building without elevators. A tall structure has many floors. Information, decisions and transactions flow from one floor to the next, moving through each level until they reach the front line. Should a customer-facing employee have a suggestion or resource request or require approval, the flow must then move in the opposite direction.

    Conversely, a flat organization has very few floors — in some cases, it has only one. It doesn’t take much effort to get information from one end of the building to another. That is, a flat organizational structure simply means an organization that has few — if any — levels of management. Many startups fall under this model, relying heavily on their founders but maintaining open communication. The challenge is to be intentional about the organization’s structure as it grows.

    Related: 3 Ways That Your Actions Today Will Shape Your Company’s Legacy

    Preserving the benefits of a flat organizational structure as you grow

    Successful entrepreneurs focus on business, product or service development, sales and marketing. Most often, a founder has a clear vision and personal values. Yet, as the company grows, the organization’s structure tends to develop independently from the vision and values. Here’s how to be intentional in maintaining the culture that made the enterprise successful as it grows — without building in costly bureaucracy:

    1. Take stock of your personal trust orientation

    Many companies throw around the buzzword “flexibility” in reference to employee benefits, but few understand what team members want. Research from Harvard Business Review reveals that what employees really need is flexibility by way of autonomy. However, the study found that the flexibility they want is contingent on their ability to exercise it how they see fit. In other words, employees need to feel trusted.

    Entrepreneurs often have tunnel vision. They accurately see themselves as the brains behind the success, and the business becomes their “baby.” I’ve seen this firsthand as a consultant. It can be hard to trust others with your creation. Yet, it is absolutely essential for successful growth. So, as you build your organizational structure, assess your personal trust orientation as it relates to your leadership role. If your belief in employees’ capabilities is low, then you might encounter the cultural struggles of a large company with a tall structure. On the other hand, high trust levels result in flatter organizations.

    Related: 3 Tips to Build Trust and Drive Business Transformation

    2. Clearly understand and avoid bureaucracy

    Maintaining quick, clear and effective communication is key to nurturing a flat organizational structure. Airbnb executives had this same realization when it revamped its hiring process and general core values over the last few years. Its leadership team found that investing in trustworthy employees and removing rules instead of adding them allowed for more communication and more freedom to move inside the organization.

    The main takeaway from Airbnb’s transformation? Replace policies with principles. You have to remember that the rules and policies you create do not exist in a vacuum. New company rules interact with every other system in the organization. By replacing rule-making with principle-founding, you can move from a restrictive, bureaucratic space to one that’s open, honest and straightforward.

    3. Distribute power as the company grows

    In the post-coronavirus landscape, companies must realize the need to adapt and broaden their hierarchical structures. Imagine a multimillion-dollar organization with checks that all must be signed by the same person. That structure would lead to delays and frustrations. Hierarchical models worked well back in the Industrial Revolution, but in today’s corporate landscape, it’s vital to nurture self-management.

    This means making an intentional and purposeful shift to elevate your employees to a position where they have power and where you invite them to actively voice their ideas. In self-managing organizations, power is distributed instead of delegated. Post-pandemic, there’s no room for delays due to hierarchies. Most leaders think that they have to have all the answers, but your employees want to help with solutions. This new era calls for leveraging your entire team’s collective strengths instead of leaning solely on your own.

    Related: 7 Components for Successfully Designing Your Organization

    One of the main drivers of any organizational structure is your people. Even if the business is your baby, you must keep people at the forefront of your mind as you progress. Today, success relies more on the collective intelligence of the whole. Recognize this fact before making any organizational decisions.

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    Sue Bingham

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