Is Agility More Important than Lean?

A friend of mine works for a company that’s always been in the consumer goods arena. It hopes to expand its B2B portfolio. The company is striving to respond consistently to Requests For Quotes within  two weeks. It predicts that it will be able to nearly double its B2B portfolio when it’s able to meet that target. On the other hand, I recently read an article about a metal fabricator that is able to ship  products in the evening for which it received an RFQ that morning. We can’t say that the metal fabricator is leaner than my friend’s employer. But we’d certainly say that the metal fabricator is more agile. We can imagine that the metal fabricator’s ability to respond so quickly to an RFQ allows it to acquire sales it might otherwise miss. We might also imagine that the metal fabricator is able to command a premium for its work, given that it can get the product to a customer that might be desperate for a quick turnaround. In both cases, then, improved agility, not leanness, is associated with  improved business results.