Agility in the automotive industry

A number of influencing factors ensure constant change in the VUCA world. Companies have to adapt quickly to these changes and, in the best case, use them as an opportunity if they want to remain successful in the long term. The key skill for this is agility. But what factors determine the agility of an organization? And how does agility actually affect the performance of companies? Until now, there has been little knowledge about this. That's why we have investigated these questions with a closer look at the automotive industry in a study.

First, we conducted qualitative interviews with experts from various OEMs and developed a model from these interviews. This model was then verified by a survey of around 1,000 managers and employees from the industry. With the help of a network analysis, we were able to illustrate and evaluate the interactions between different design areas of agility and their effects on company performance. The correlations and causalities identified provide an indication of how individual activities can be meaningfully bundled. In addition, the study provides findings on several further aspects: for example, on the status of agility at companies in the automotive industry or on strategies for the further development of agility.