Mina Magdy Mahrous ESLSCA 53I

ARTICLE REVIEW
ARTICLE TITLE:

The role of agile strategic capabilities in achieving resilience in manufacturing-based small companies

AUTHOR:

Hossam S. Ismail, Jenny Poolton and Hossein Sharifi

(The Management School, The University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK 2011)

PUBLISHER:

International Journal of Production Research

Vol. 49, No. 18, 15 September 2011, 5469–5487

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The article discuss how to integrate operational agility with strategic development and growth. It is argued that achieving
resilience depends on both developing internal capabilities to meet current market demands, and how to take advantage of alternative
options for growth to capitalize upon anticipated trends in the marketplace.

OPERATIONAL AGILITY

Can be achieved through a three phase progressive and iterative process: (a bottom-up approach)
Robustness Phase : Identifying variables that can make a firm vulnerable in its operating environment.

Responsiveness phase: aligning robust business processes and capabilities to maximize responsiveness to market needs.

Proactive phase :seeking new customers, entering new markets, or the development of new product lines.

STRATEGIC AGILITY

a ‘top-down’ approach, that uses strategic thinking and planning to compliment operational capabilities.

SME usually lack strategic planning except in high tech industries. This is usually due to owner/managers of SMEs tend to be
technically minded rather than strategists .

Two triggers known to prompt strategic thinking and planning are a threat of losses, or an identified need to expand the business.

Turbulence negatively affects strategic planning. Production issues tend to leave little time and resources for strategic planning for
growth.
Mina Magdy Mahrous ESLSCA 53I
the proposed framework for SME STRATEGIC AGILITY FRAMEWORK

Step 1: understand differentiation factors for the industry. All factors are categorized as ‘order qualifier’ or ‘order
winner’. Company performance is compared with sector average, so is the likely effort in attaining or maintaining a lead.

Step 2: examine industry trends and impacts are assessed with respect to its opportunity versus threat potential and its impact on
revenues and costs. The factors are subsequently prioritized based on their likely impacts.

Step 3: positioning versus competitive strengths and weaknesses

identify internal strengths and weaknesses and compare to the strongest comparable competitors. Each factor is explored to identify
whether any opportunities might exist to capitalize on strengths and improve on weaknesses.

Step 4: the setting of targets and selection of growth options. The targets are expected to be initially stretching, but could
realistically be achieved with some forethought.

Step 5: assessment and prioritization of growth options

in terms of importance or urgency, degree of control, difficulty or complexity, demand on resources, demands on time and potential
return on investment
Step 6: development of growth plans
Lists of viable tactics are compiled based on identified priorities and compiled as a multi-strategy action plan to achieve growth.

Step 7: implementation and review

Action plans are reviewed in terms of their relevance and effectiveness. This involves a re-evaluation of the strategies and associated
tactics in light of new opportunities or risks.

HOW THE RESEARCH WAS CONDUCTED

2 traditional manufacturing companies were selected ( SMEs). The position of both in the supply chain gave them little visibility of
demand.
Within each company, the intervention was conducted over a 2-year period via a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) program
with the primary goal of assisting the companies to become operationally and strategically agile. The above mentioned framework was
implemented and results proved to be positive.

CONCLUSION

- SMEs tend to lack a clear approach when it comes to coping with marketplace changes as well as planning for growth.
- A key objective of the framework is developing resilience in an SME setting.

- The pre-requisites of the framework is an understanding of the company capabilities and the business environment.

COMMENTS :

The success story of the KTP program in the 2 companies involved in the research proves that theoretical principles and tools have a
real benefit when taken seriously; which is rare in most SME’s especially those that are privately owned. The concept of operational
agility was new to me and deserves further reading . In the current business environment growth strategies should not neglect
turbulence and building resilient strategies is the key to sustainability.