Choose a strategy—or die

Sometimes we hear from managers who think that implementing agile will solve all their problems. The reasoning seems to go something like this: "Since agile methodologies can increase efficiency, innovation and customer understanding, we will automatically get all three if we adopt agile."

But these three needs are inherently different. They emphasize three completely different organizational capabilities that support three completely different strategies. An agile "expert" or a "framework" that claims to optimize for efficiency, innovation and customer insight all at once, is either ignorant or lying.

Agile is not a silver bullet to solve any organizational problem; it is a loosely coherent set of principles for producing value in an organization. The central idea is to navigate complexity and adapt to changes. Beyond that, how you choose to configure your agile organization will lead to very different strategic capabilities. And that is a strategic choice you have to make!

There are essentially 3 organizational strategies to choose from:

• Operational excellence—cost-efficient, high-volume, and low-margin.
• Product leadership—innovative, quick to market, and high margin.
• Customer centricity—niche segments, deep customer insight, and high lifetime value and share of wallet.

These 3 strategies will put different demands on your teams. The organization might look the same – teams might be set up similarly, their calendars might include similar meetings, and the tools they use might be the same. But the people will celebrate different victories, mourn different losses, collaborate around different problems, react to changes differently, and promote different topics for learning.

To summarize: Navigate complexity, adapt to changes and choose a strategy! Or die.

Anders Wengelin
CEO, Partner and Management Consultant