“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.” - Sun Tzu
Yesterday it was semiconductor shortage, covid, Suez Canal blockage, Russian invasion, green tech regulations, energy crisis. Today tariffs are shaking up global trade flows.
Every time, it’s different, yet the same. Companies panic, operations stall, people are laid off, projects on halt, and nobody knows what to do. Though everyone knows these things happen on a regular basis, very few are prepared for it.
But while most struggle to cope with the chaos of pandemics or tariffs, for a select few, sudden change is to their advantage, they even thrive. What sets them apart?
Composability
A composable company doesn’t just survive, it adapts, pivots, and outperforms their competition in times of change. Because the only thing that matters is being faster, smarter, and more flexible than your competitors. You don’t need to outrun the bear; you just need to outrun the other guy.
What does it mean to be composable?
Composability extends the principle of modularity beyond products into the entire business system. In a composable organization, it’s not only about a flexible product but:
- The business’ entire strategic direction and business model can shift
- Manufacturing can shift
- Supply chains can be reconfigured
- Sales and marketing can redirect focus
- Organizations can realign talent and teams fast
Essential Elements for Composability - enabled through Modularity
So, what are the essential elements required to become a composable and flexible company?
Modular platforms — the cornerstone
A modular platform is more than a design strategy — it's the cornerstone of composability. It gives you the power to adapt without having to start from scratch every time something changes. And let’s face it, something always changes. If your platform isn’t modular, the rest won’t follow.
Here’s why it matters:
- You don’t need to redesign the product — just reconfigure it. Change what’s needed and keep the rest.
- Standardized interfaces mean you can respond to both the expected and the unexpected. Billions of possible product combinations are possible.
- You can swap modules and variants, opening up flexibility across procurement, sourcing, sales, and marketing. One change opens a chain reaction of opportunities.
That’s why modularization is the real enabler of composability — it makes flexibility not just an idea, but something you can act on.
Distributed manufacturing and flexible production Lines
A composable manufacturing footprint makes you flexible in how and where you finish your product.
- The same logic applies in manufacturing. If your product is modular, your supply is composable, and you have a strategically distributed manufacturing footprint with flexible production lines
- Shift volume of assembly from one country to another
- Change purchase level and assembly level
Flexible supply chain
A composable supply chain makes you flexible in where and how you procure and source the parts and material of your product.
- shift component volume and procurement to alternative suppliers in more favorable countries
- substitute modules with cheaper or local variants
- Redirect procurement to non-tariff or lower-tariff sources
- Having tight strategic and mutually beneficial suppliers of key components that are able to renegotiate contracts, scale up and down suppliers when change is needed.
Composable commercial operations: Sales, Marketing & Branding
Composable commercial operations give you flexibility on the outbound side. When demand drops or shifts, you don’t just wait for it to come back. You meet it where it still exists or to where it is shifting.
- Shift sales focus on other channels or regions
- Adjust marketing and product branding to fit new target segments
- Reprice and reconfigure products to fit new market realities
All adjusted and adapted to a new competitive landscape.
Realigning your organization to execute
Being able to shift the inbound and outbound all boils down to one thing: people.
- Reconfigure teams and priorities rapidly
- Shift knowledge and capabilities in new constellations to where they are needed
- Self-organization, autonomy and empower decision-making at the front, not just the top
- Break and shift incentive structures. If old structures remain, old habits and behaviors will too.
If your teams are frozen waiting for instructions, your advantage is gone. But if they know the drill and have the data, a modular architecture allowing them to work in parallel, you and your teams can move faster than your competition.
Connected Modular Business with a Shared Information Model
Set the strategy before the storm through data driven scenarios
This brings us to the final point: When do you act, and how? It begins as a C-level strategic challenge, but it must be executed across the entire organization. Think of it like how Japanese society prepares for earthquakes: not just through building codes and regulation, but through infrastructure, action planning, organizational readiness and training.
To start your composability journey, first set your vision of strategic flexibility. Through strategic scenario planning you can roughly understand and choose in what way your company should respond to different model scenarios. That will determine how and to what degree you focus and execute on the above 5 points.
To assist you in this you need to analyze the impact of your decisions quickly. That requires a comprehensive data model of your modular platforms, linking it with market sales volumes, prices, module costs, and profitability on a holistic platform level. That enables you to simulate scenarios on your entire portfolio through hypothetical changes in volumes, prices and costs.
Empowering Modularity and Configuration
Although we don't know what the next crisis will be, future events will impact your company. Will you leverage them or be caught off guard? Let crises be your opportunity to win. We know everything will change, and change is constant. Embrace change as the constant and build it into your company DNA.
Companies that integrate modularity and configuration into key assets can act faster, deliver more value, and thrive through change. We hope to inspire you to become agile, resilient, and adaptable like we have supported many companies over the years.
Act now to become a winning company with a composable, flexible, and resilient business through a modular approach.
Tommy Låbbman
