An effective solution for adaptation and innovation
Business Agility is a solution for a fast-changing, uncertain and competitive world. It represents, first and foremost, a company's ability to anticipate customer and market requirements, and then to deliver value through top-quality, high-performance products and services within short deadlines.
To keep pace with the speed of market change, you need to be able not only to remain competitive, but also to stand out from the crowd by adapting to external disruptions, and demonstrating your ability to change from within. All the while being able to easily change course when the situation arises.
It is now essential to adapt and move towards change in the way we address projects and manage human resources, to better identify new opportunities in the face of market changes.
A transition to Agility, a question of survival
«The problem isn't that our organizations realize they need to transform; the problem is that organizations are using outdated frameworks and infrastructure models to manage their business in this new age» by Mik Kersten
Despite their awareness of the threat posed by the new digital era, many managers are finding it difficult to make the transition to Agile. And for good reason: for some companies, breaking away from a work system or even a corporate culture that has served them well for decades, in order to align themselves with the waves of an ever-changing world, remains complex and even difficult.
Let's take the example of ALPHA, a company that has had a stranglehold on the entire market in its sector for several years, with no competitors in sight, if any lurking in the shadows. The latter, despite good sales, will see no point in innovating, maximizing its product, or simply improving customer satisfaction. At this stage, the professional challenge is almost non-existent, implying a lack of will in professional execution. With the advent of this new digital era, instead of thinking in terms of “ADAPTATION”, this lambda company prefers to confine itself to its comfort zone, keeping to its working method.
On the other hand, a BETA company in the same sector, having quickly become aware of market changes and emerging opportunities, decides to adopt an agile transformation. This transformation will not only be comprehensive, but will also focus on processes, strategy, organizational structure, people and technology. As a result of this transformation, the company will be able to run its business with shorter time-to-market, higher quality products, increased customer satisfaction, greater employee engagement and productivity, a greater ability to change course, and a positive impact on corporate culture.
In the end, the BETA company evolving in business agility will be able to anticipate customer demand, identify setbacks or errors in their strategies and quickly make adjustments, and respond quickly before their competitors, who will end up losing their notoriety, thus increasing their chance of success.
Becoming an agile company therefore requires a real transformation, involving an evolution in corporate culture, a change in the way we work, the way we are and the way we think.
Don't be afraid of change, it's important to embrace and support it.
Business Agility: a question of configuration
What's special about Agile companies is that they abandon traditional organizational structures in favor of autonomous cross-functional teams. The formation of these independent groups enables Agile organizations to reduce handovers, gain speed and change direction with greater agility. Ultimately, these companies can also track consumer demands by conducting surveys and communicating directly with buyers. This gives managers an insight into customer expectations, which they can use to implement adjustments to their services and products.
The challenge is to configure the organization in such a way as to support the value stream and encourage interaction between members of the same team, and between different teams or departments within the company. A team responsible for the success or failure of a product is more capable of drawing on the different areas of expertise present within the structure. This is why it is necessary to set up a team known as the “Change Team”, or even the “Shock Team”, whose aim will be to provide advice, maintain the Agile transformation process, and contribute know-how in Agile methodology. Most importantly, you need to know how to create an environment of trust to enable your teams to experiment, in order to become an innovative organization.
When it comes to building a product, agility doesn't just apply to production teams; it also impacts the organization's architecture, the improvement of relationships within teams, the construction of processes, the user experience, the design experience...
Teams need to identify and analyze bottlenecks and problems in order to move the team and the product forward.
With the right attitude, a company can make the right decisions to keep up with the pace of business, maintain a competitive edge and increase profitability.
You need to cultivate agility to make sure you're not left behind in a constantly changing economic and business environment.
The agile mindset isn't everything, and these technical elements and know-how (practices and tools) are real drivers of Business Agility in the sense that they energize the product cycle and accelerate deployment.
Conclusion
Agility helps bring to light and deal with thorny business issues more quickly.
But we mustn't forget that agility won't solve all problems if every employee isn't committed to his or her work. At this stage, you need to involve the whole team to make it work, regardless of mistakes made, job level or status, because good ideas can come out where you least expect them.
The overall aim is to satisfy the customer and ensure the company's long-term development.
About Moore Senegal
We support companies in all their major transformation projects (organizational, operational, digital...) to adapt to a world that has become VUCA (Volatile - Uncertain (Uncertain) - Complex - Ambiguous).
With our Agilemind value proposition, we help you achieve operational excellence through agile transformation.
