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Part 1  Introduction

Strategic agility

The capacity to respond to these environmental opportunities and threats is commonly 

referred to as strategic agility. 

Strategic agility

 is a concept strongly associated with 

knowledge management theory and is based on developing a sound process for review‑

ing marketplace opportunities and threats and then selecting the appropriate strategy 

options.

Strategic agility

The capability to 

innovate and so gain 

competitive advantage 

within a marketplace 

by monitoring changes 

within an organisation’s 

marketplace and then 

to efficiently evaluate 

alternative strategies 

and select, review and 

implement appropriate 

candidate strategies.

Mini Case Study 2.1

Professor Donald N. Sull is an Associate Professor of Management Practice in the Strategy and International 

Management faculty at the London Business School.

In the first video tutorial, ‘Fog of the Future’ on strategic agility (visit www.ft.com/multimedia and search for 

‘London Business School’), he asserts that traditional management models of creating a  long‑  term vision are 

flawed since our knowledge of the future is always imperfect and marketplace conditions are changing con‑

tinuously (Figure 2.3). Rather than being the captain of a ship surveying the far horizon, analogous with the  top‑ 

 down model of strategy, the reality for managers is that their situation is more akin to that of a racing car driver 

on a foggy day, constantly looking to take the right decisions based on the mass of information about their

The Marine Corps demonstrates strategic agility

Figure 2.3

Professor Donald Sull of London Business School talks about strategic  

agility

Source: www.ft.com.

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