Don’t blink or you’ll miss it. That about sums up the pace of change in business today. We’re also becoming more accustomed every day to living with significant disruption and uncertainty. We expect the unexpected. The companies best able to thrive in such challenging conditions will be those with a fully integrated approach focused on the goal of enterprise agility—that is, on their ability to quickly sense and respond to change.
Agile methodologies have become common in business, but too often they are restricted to addressing discrete tactical issues instead of being employed enterprise-wide, where they can have broad strategic impact and boost digital transformation.
Moving from siloed pockets of agility to enterprise agility begins with a clear-eyed assessment of your company’s current state of operations. Are you hampered by rigid annual planning and allocation structures? Do you expend more effort sweating deadlines than delivering value to customers? Do your current silos and hierarchies impede rather than enhance communication? Do you measure productivity on output rather than outcome?
How do we make Enterprise Agility an interwoven aspect of our business DNA, instead of just another pipe dream? We’ve asked experts both at ServiceNow and global thought leaders on our Enterprise Agility Podcast for insights on how to approach driving organizational agility. One of the key learnings is this: realizing true enterprise agility requires aiming beyond outdated approaches and focusing on three guiding principles.
- Think customer value. Outcomes should be managed—employing everything from your portfolio to team structures—to deliver optimal value for your customers along with strong business results for the company.
- Embrace uncertainty. Annual planning cycles and processes should give way to more flexible, adaptive approaches. And to best ensure the ability to pivot in disruptive circumstances, all stakeholders should have a hand in the continuous review and adjustment of projects.
- Change workflows. Break out of traditional silos, processes, and isolated teams, and introduce agile and hybrid workflows throughout the enterprise.
Enterprise agility impacts speed, productivity, responsiveness to opportunities, and flexibility under disruptive conditions. To learn more about strategies for pursuing fully integrated enterprise agility, and to see the five-step journey your company can take to reach ITBM fitness, read the free ebook “Deliver Value Faster: Enterprise Agility and the Future of ITBM.”
