Flexibility: Flexible Companies for the Uncertain World

By: Gill Eapen

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Synopsis: We are in an era of high volatility and uncertain outcomes, driven by accelerating technologies, shortened product cycles, fast-changing information, an increasingly mobile workforce, more demanding customers, complex financial markets, ad-hoc public policies, and many other factors that add layers of uncertainty to all future possibilities. In an information- and knowledge-driven environment with high levels of uncertainty, most traditional ideas of structure, system, and strategy are ineffective. This book shows how to create, maintain, and accelerate an organization in a highly uncertain environment using flexibility. It analyzes the organization holistically and details its primary components independently. The author presents an economic framework of decision options to diagnose existing flexibility problems and provides guidance on how to improve flexibility and reduce risk. The text also describes how to design and maintain a high performance organization for the long run in an environment of high uncertainty.