A freight train is the classic image of structural inertia: once it’s moving, its mass and design make it hard to stop or change course quickly. The idea describes large, established firms having “structural inertia” qualities (bureaucracy, heavy capital investments, fixed routines) that make rapid change difficult.
As Michael Hannan and John Freeman put it in their foundational work on organizational ecology, structural inertia helps organizations “reliably produce collective action” but makes them slow to change when environments shift.
By contrast, a car is agile: it can brake, reverse, pick a new road, and reroute around obstacles. In management terms this maps onto organizational agility — the capacity to renew, adapt, and change quickly in uncertain environments.
McKinsey defines agility as “the ability of an organization to renew itself, adapt, change quickly, and succeed in a rapidly changing, ambiguous, turbulent environment.” They stress that agility is not disorderly instability but the capacity to combine stability with rapid adaptation.
Peter Senge’s systems-thinking warning is relevant here: “Today’s problems come from yesterday’s ‘solutions’.” That is, processes and structures that once worked (the freight-train design) can become traps when conditions change.
When organizations act like freight trains they expose themselves to serious risks: slow decision cycles, missed opportunities, wasted resources, and catastrophic failure when shocks arrive.
Research and practitioner reports show that firms with high inertia struggle to innovate and to respond to disruption, while agile firms outperform peers on speed, innovation and resilience. McKinsey’s work on agility and organizational shape demonstrates a measurable performance edge for companies that adopt agile practices.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) and other global bodies link agility to psychological safety and continuous learning: teams that feel safe to surface problems, experiment and learn adapt faster and produce better outcomes. They stress that “purpose-driven organisations foster psychological safety and innovation,” a key ingredient for the car-like behaviour of quick course correction.
For African contexts, regional institutions emphasise resilience and adaptive capacity as core development priorities. The African Union’s Agenda 2063 calls for “capable institutions and transformative leadership,” and the African Development Bank promotes resilience and transformation as central to the continent’s growth strategy — both ideas echo the need for organizations to be able to adapt rather than be locked into one path.
Centralization, Bureaucracy, and the Agility Divide
The Middle Tennessee State University Organizational Transformation textbook notes that centralized structures concentrate authority at the top, often making firms slow to react to change. McKinsey & Company similarly highlights “decision paralysis” as a common outcome of excessive centralization, where too many approvals are needed and no one is clearly accountable.
By contrast, organizations that decentralize decision authority—allowing frontline teams to make operational or localized decisions—tend to be far more agile and responsive. Studies summarized by Dr. Kendrick Scott emphasize that decentralized structures empower employees, increase morale, and foster faster problem-solving.
This aligns strongly with the “car” metaphor: when individuals closer to the work are trusted to act, the organization can steer quickly in new directions.
Bureaucracy is another major determinant of whether an organization functions like a freight train or a car. Highly bureaucratic organizations rely on many layers of hierarchy, rigid processes, and formal rules.
According to research published through RedALyC, excessive formalization may ensure consistency but severely limits creativity and adaptability. In dynamic environments, such bureaucracy becomes a liability. This is consistent with findings from organizational change research which show that firms with heavy bureaucratic structures are slower to recognize and respond to external shifts.
On the other hand, organizations that deliberately reduce bureaucracy—by flattening hierarchies, simplifying procedures, and allowing flexibility within guidelines—tend to exhibit greater resilience and innovation. They behave more like cars: capable of changing course rapidly without losing control.
Globally, and especially within African institutions, these concepts are highly relevant. African organizations often operate in regulatory and economic environments that change rapidly.
Recent scholarship on governance in African firms, published through Springer, shows that flexible and participatory management practices significantly improve organizational performance and international relevance.
In such contexts, a structure that empowers employees, reduces unnecessary red tape, and fosters open communication is not simply advantageous; it is essential.
The metaphor of the freight train versus the car becomes a practical diagnostic tool: it helps leaders reflect on how their organizations work and whether their current systems are built for adaptability or rigidity.
Taken together, decision-making structure and bureaucracy form the backbone of organizational agility. If decisions flow slowly from the top and employees have little or no discretion, the organization resembles a freight train—strong but inflexible. If employees can act within clear boundaries, propose innovations, and respond rapidly to change, the organization is more like a car—nimble, perceptive, and strategically responsive.
Leaders who want to strengthen adaptability must therefore examine not only how their organizations are structured but also how they empower people, handle processes, and engage with the external environment. The more autonomy and flexibility the organization allows, the more capable it becomes of navigating obstacles and pursuing new opportunities.
Ostensibly, when authority is hoarded at the top and processes are weighed down by rules, organizations lose their ability to move, react, or innovate. Decisions crawl through bottlenecks, employees hesitate to act, and the whole enterprise begins to resemble a freight train—powerful but unable to turn. This structural rigidity becomes even more entrenched when paired with the outdated people-management practices.
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The author is a dynamic entrepreneur and the Founder and Group CEO of Groupe Soleil Vision, made up of Soleil Consults (US), LLC, NubianBiz.com and Soleil Publications. He has an extensive background In Strategy, Management, Entrepreneurship, Premium Audit Advisory, And Web Consulting. With professional experiences spanning both Ghana and the United States, Jules has developed a reputation as a thought leader in fields such as corporate governance, leadership, e-commerce, and customer service. His publications explore a variety of topics, including economics, information technology, marketing and branding, making him a prominent voice in discussions on development and business innovation across Africa. Through NubianBiz.com, he actively champions intra-African trade and technology-driven growth to empower SMEs across the continent?.
The post The Business Strategy Analyst with Jules Nartey-Tokoli: When momentum becomes a trap: How organizations can shift from inertia to adaptive agility appeared first on The Business & Financial Times.
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