Strategic Agility | The Runway

KEY POINTS:

Adaptability: Ability to change strategies swiftly based on external/internal factors.
Proactive Evolution: Anticipating market changes before they happen.
Dynamic Capabilities: Harnessing resources and competences to address emerging opportunities.
Responsive Decision-making: Making quick decisions based on real-time data.
Stakeholder Alignment: Keeping all internal and external stakeholders in sync with strategy shifts.
Embracing Uncertainty: Recognizing and exploiting the opportunities that uncertainty presents.
Fluid Organisational Structures: Having structures that can easily be reshaped.
Iterative Learning: Incorporating feedback and learning from every strategic action.
Balanced Risk-taking: Willingness to take calculated risks without jeopardizing the core business.
Competitive Differentiation: Continuously reinventing the value proposition to stay ahead.

Strategic Influence

Operational Imperative No. 5 – Resilient Basing

The USAF, like the ADF, is addressing Resilient Basing as a strategy to deter future adversary ability to disrupt operations

Strategic Influence

Planning for the Next War Must Be a Mixture of Art & Science

In addressing complex security challenges, the U.S. military balances art and science in planning, emphasizing agility and adaptability through the Joint Planning Process and operational design.

Strategic Influence

Understanding ACE

Agile Combat Employment is a concept gaining traction within the USAF and impacts the way their Air Force plans, prepares and responds to threats. The change of focus to a more agile model means that logisticians especially must be able to employ logistics support from adaptive bases and often in a contested environment.

Air & Space Power

Air forces are ditching runways to prepare their jets to keep operating when enemies aim for their bases

Western air forces, including Britain's Royal Air Force, plan to use highways as makeshift runways for their jets. This strategy, reminiscent of the Cold War, is designed to disperse operations and circumvent enemy attacks. Similarly, the US military is also adopting these tactics.

Technology & Innovation

Agility: The Business Model Of Today

Business today functions at an unprecedented pace. What once took extensive periods now transpires instantly. The traditional model of sluggish progression through bureaucratic hurdles is outdated. Technology has accelerated market access, resolving customer issues swiftly.

Technology & Innovation

6 Principles to Build Your Company’s Strategic Agility

In 2020, Airbnb adapted to Covid-19, leading to a successful IPO, while California Pizza Kitchen went bankrupt. Companies like Huanxi, Qantas, and Swiggy showcased strategic agility. Disney emphasized safety and streaming.

Technology & Innovation

Rapid Dragon: the US military game-changer that could affect conventional and nuclear strategy and arms control negotiations

The US Air Force's Rapid Dragon system repurposes cargo planes like Hercules and Globemaster into palletised cruise missile carriers, turning them into bombers with substantial munition capacity.

Strategic Influence

The new Marine infantry battalion is slimmer, saltier and more techy

The new battalion cuts manpower from 965 to 811 Marines; meanwhile, it integrates advanced technology to enhance unit capabilities.

Technology & Innovation

Britain tests transport drone’s ability to land, take off from ship

The HCMC transport drone successfully landed on the HMS Prince of Wales, a significant Royal Navy achievement.

Air & Space Power

Babcock paves new ground with RAAF airfield mats

The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) will have an innovative new pavement solution, set to revolutionise the RAAF’s ability to rapidly construct temporary pavements in remote locations; and be installed by a small team.

Air & Space Power

Air Force practices operating from cut-off bases in fierce future war

The US Air Force’s Mosaic Tiger 26-1 exercise tested Agile Combat Employment, training aviators to sustain dispersed operations without resupply or communications, using multi-capable roles and resourcefulness to maintain aircraft and generate sorties.

Strategic Influence

As USMC leans on Australian territory, ADF can gain, but we must guard autonomy

Australia’s growing role in US regional planning offers real advantages—yet it also demands clear boundaries to protect national decision-making, ensure genuine autonomy and strengthen long-term resilience across the north.

Air & Space Power

Air Force practices operating from cut-off bases in fierce future war

The US Air Force’s Mosaic Tiger 26-1 exercise tested Agile Combat Employment, training aviators to sustain dispersed operations without resupply or communications, using multi-capable roles and resourcefulness to maintain aircraft and generate sorties.

Military History

Bookshelf: War lessons from Robert McNamara

McNamara’s (US Secretary of Defense 1961-68) experience in Vietnam highlights the need for clear exit strategies, understanding local conditions, and weighing public opinion. Misplaced loyalty, faith in numbers, and delayed honesty can lock leaders into failing choices.

Strategic Influence

Ukraine launches attacks on Russia's shadow fleet in foreign waters

Ukraine is targeting oil tankers linked to Russia’s shadow fleet beyond its waters. The strikes aim to cut war funding, expose sanction gaps, and highlight rising risks to shipping, energy supply, and undersea infrastructure.

Technology & Innovation

Threat of large trans-Pacific drones

Very long-range uncrewed underwater platforms could erode distance as a shield. China’s progress suggests new options to threaten distant ports and sea lanes. This shifts assumptions about reach, deterrence, and how maritime security must be planned.

Technology & Innovation

Analysis of new naval attack method

Ukraine struck a submarine in harbour using an unmanned underwater drone. The attack shows how ports and fixed assets are exposed. Innovation now shapes maritime risk and rewards those who adapt faster.

Military History

Shallow Waters, Big Lessons: What the Falklands War Reveals About Submarine Warfare

Shallow seas reward stealth, not size. The Falklands show that small, quiet platforms can deny access, force caution, and shape outcomes—while heavy payloads add risk. Physics, terrain, and patience decide success near coasts.

Military Management

Another lesson from Ukraine for Taiwan’s friends: the power of surveillance

Ukraine shows that timely surveillance enables decisive strikes. Persistent sensing, fast data fusion, and resilient networks decide when targets are most vulnerable—and failure to protect these systems risks losing the initiative in any high-end conflict.