Companies with enterprise agility show better long-term performance. What is enterprise agility in the first place? It is the ability to have a sense and quick effective response to situations and disturbance. There are two factors that make up true agility. One is velocity and adaptiveness or what you call speed. Another is a solid foundational base for stability.
Benefits
True enterprise agility delivers several benefits.
Business value creation. It is crucial to align the company through lightweight shared practices and processes. Enterprise agility does that. Adapting to market changes or new ideas can be faster. The company lets the employees focus on top priorities. It shows progress to everyone through impartial meaningful metrics. The creation and delivery of value will then be faster. This will let the company move on to the next-highest-priority items.
Customer needs and expectations. Enterprise agility lets a company value rapid feedback loops in internal and external. Co-workers and customers will be able to build transparency and trust. It can be exciting for customers to be eager in waiting for the next imminent release.
Positive shared culture. Another great benefit of enterprise agility is creating a positive shared culture. An agile company fosters a culture of teamwork, transparency, and honesty. A spirit of cooperation and shared trust is inevitable when everyone collaborates. Everyone has a chance to help improve things through retrospectives. There is more active engagement in improvement opportunities.
Challenges
Although there are many benefits, there are also several challenges that come with it.
The unknown. A company should not only focus on today and tomorrow. It should prepare for an unknown, unpredictable future filled with uncertainty. Being able to predict future performance is vital. Companies should be able to adapt to volatile markets and uncertain circumstances.
Investment values. A company should be able to justify any investment at board level. The investment should also prove to be fruitful and give returns faster.
Skills and knowledge conversion. There are several challenges in complex, technical industries. A key challenge is the conversion of skills, knowledge, and ideas from individuals. It can be challenging to transform human capital into structural capital. What is more of a challenge is to ensure it can benefit the company. The knowledge of specialist teams and employees can be a great asset. Companies strive to manage them well to keep those employees.
Adjusting working culture, processes, and practices. An agile company needs adaptable technology. Aside from that, it also needs adaptable people and culture. A company should be able to capitalize on changes to create business advantages. It is vital to have the systems, processes, and culture in place to let the transformation happen.
A company should set the right direction and ambition with its leaders at all levels. It is the starting point of enterprise agility.