In the classic 1954 management book The Practice of Management, Peter Drucker wrote, “what the business thinks it produces is not of first importance – especially not to the future of the business and its success. What the customer thinks he is buying, what he considers ‘value’ is decisive – it determines what a business is, what it produces, and whether it will prosper.”
This was a revolutionary idea at a time when business was based on finding an advantage, defending it and exploiting it. But as technology advanced and businesses achieved the ability to deliver what Stephen Denning in The Age of Agile calls “instant, intimate, frictionless value at scale” the center of today’s business world has truly become the customer.
The environment changed from one where leaders decided on projects that would deliver outputs to the market, to one where the most successful businesses are those plugged in and responsive to customers. Opportunities today follow from an understanding of customers that allows businesses to recognize and meet needs or even delight customers. In rapidly changing environments, organizations need to transform how they operate to meet the new expectations of the marketplace and to create new opportunities.
The organizational transformation necessary to thrive in a changing environment is not straightforward, takes time and requires effective leadership. It’s an ongoing journey to get interdependent teams, business units and layers of management to work together to achieve organizational Agile goals. A successful transformation requires effective leadership at all levels.
Created to help your transformation, the OnDemand webinar, How to Lead Enterprise Agile, offers guidance on how best to lead your transformation regardless of where you are in your Agile journey. Agile experts Bhavani Krishnan and Mason Chaudhry discuss three crucial areas: leadership styles and approaches, organizational change management that addresses the human side of organizational transformation, and execution. It provides numerous perspectives, ideas and lessons from various stages and contexts in the Agile adoption journey.
An Agile transformation of an organization to a customer-oriented one that creates value by recognizing and responding to customer needs and desires requires thoughtful and effective leadership throughout all levels of an organization at all stages of its journey. The transformation is necessary for the effective delivery of instant, intimate frictionless value at scale that today’s customer-centric environment requires. How to Lead Enterprise Agile provides insights and expertise to help you successfully complete your journey.
