A truly agile company is able to make the most of the wherewithal, skills, knowledge and ideas of all its staff. Euan Semple is an independent advisor on social computing for business and previously pioneered the use of blogs and wikis at the BBC. He believes that the use of social networking technologies can vastly improve businesses’ agility.

“Most companies are carrying so much dead weight in terms of processes and behaviours,” he says. “Not all of it will disappear, but once you have had a lively, connected, fast-moving bunch of people capable of getting things done, some things just fall away as being plain stupid.”

One major contribution social networking tools can make to agility is improving customer awareness and responsiveness, says Semple. “For example, giving your employees a social bookmarking tool and getting them to point to and tag any conversations related to your products is a fantastic market-awareness tool,” he says. “And your staff can also be your greatest advocates online.”

But you need to look inward as well as outward, giving staff tools such as blogs and wikis that let them contribute plans for improvement and discuss ideas collaboratively and openly. “This appeals to the disenfranchised within businesses ­ people who either do not have a voice or who have a lot to say but nowhere to say it,” says Semple. “A lot of what they talk about will initially seem wrong or dangerous, but that is usually the really good stuff.”

And, while he acknowledges you need formal processes to follow through ideas, Semple maintains the informality of open online discussion is crucial: “At the BBC, these tools generated a lot of valuable context. But unless you can take the leap of faith and allow things to get messy, you will not get the benefits,” he says.