Large organizations which have grown over last few decades & holding leading market positions have now realized that business models, management structures, systems and processes which worked for them earlier are no longer relevant in today’s business environment. Now change in consumer expectations is happening at an astonishing pace. Consumers are getting exposed to new ways of engagement, new products & services, convenient delivery & payment methods and satisfying after sale services response.
Business have also realized that customer loyalty span is shortening day by day and they need to respond to this situation by offering new product and services using new engagement models to hold their positions in existing market as well as kick off their journey in blue oceans.
Typically these large organizations have thousands of employees across multiple geographies in many silos business units with some shared services departments. They take 1-3 years from concept to market launch of new products and services while aligning complete life cycle support of new products into their existing organization structures and processes. Their size itself has become obstacle in responding to market changes faster.
New smaller organizations are able to conceptualize, design and launch their products in 3-6 months thus tapping on first mover advantage in certain market segments and setting min. expectations threshold for followers.
How can these large organizations be nimble and embrace agility like new players while still leveraging their experience & wisdom to offer superior quality & competitive priced services in time.
Getting something done within these large organizations may take weeks to months due to their silo working structures and perceived notion of someone else taking credit of their efforts.
To train these elephants (large organizations) to dance, it would require a top down mind shift along with significant changes in how success and failures are acknowledged and rewarded within organisation. Do organizations value Heros or recognize Team achievements will drive much needed change in organization culture to foster agility.
There is no silver bullet or magic wand which can infuse agility in an organization in few days or weeks. It’s a journey which needs to be taken to become fit for future. One may learn recipe of Agile home remedies from others but this needs to be prepared organically by everyone themselves for an effective and lasting impact.
Which agile methodology or tools are best suited needs to be evaluated considering your own organization culture, business context and objectives.
On Agile journey, one need to be ready to accept failures as certain ideas may not give desired results. One should improvise their agile methodologies using their own learnings and build an eco-system which can allow teams to fail fast and fail in smart way (promoting experimenting model & learning from each to build on to next one).
Apart from organizations structures & processes changes, People need to come along to form teams and work with “one team, one goal” mindset. A constant reflection on organic growth of team experience is essential for Agile maturity in organizations.
Elephants can dance and it is an amazing experience to see them dance.
