Agile methods in major corporations

“With greater agility, we would be much more successful.” A statement that, one way or another, resonates at the level of decision-makers these days. But what’s all the fuss about? What does agility really bring to a company?

It began in the 1990s in the field of software development, and for a long time was primarily a purely IT-related issue. Yet in recent years, agile frameworks such as Scrum, Kanban and SAFe have also been used in the business sector.

The startup, Spotify, can trace its origins back to 2006. It wanted to be a legal alternative to music piracy. Today, the company is one of the world’s largest music services (271 million users in Q4/2019). This success story would be unimaginable without the company’s agile mindset.

Major corporations nevertheless continue to view this type of approach with a cautious and critical eye. The methods are attributed more to start-ups and smaller companies.

Yet agility works, as the example of Spotify already impressively demonstrates. The company now boasts more than 4,000 employees worldwide and, with 14 years’ experience, is now a well-established undertaking. Nevertheless, the company continues to develop and scale the agile model yet further.

The success of agile methods is nevertheless not limited exclusively to the software sector or the Internet economy.

There are entirely traditional companies which demonstrate how new approaches can be used to implement transformation in major corporations.

Founded as far back as 1932 and a major corporation with more than 13,000 employees, Lego shows how agility can also be adopted in a company that is far removed from the IT sector.

Lego adopted the SAFe framework. What began in small teams was soon flowing through the entire company all the way up to the highest echelons of management. This shows that there should be no excuses even for larger companies to be open to greater agility.

Admittedly, it is a move that requires a process and cannot simply be implemented immediately. And the very nature of such a (cultural) change means that everything does not always run smoothly from the very outset. Lego has nevertheless shown that traditional major corporations can also adopt agile approaches.

But is everything automatically better if all employees have a Scrum certificate and are referred to as “product owners”, “devs” and “stakeholders”? Of course not.

Agile methods do not make an impact by changing job titles or issuing certificates. The success of such methods is largely dependent on a cultural change within the company. Agility must not merely be understood; it must be embraced.

Every employee, from the Product Manager to the CEO, should feel committed to understanding what agility means and how it works best in the company. Only then can agile principles truly be embraced. Without such a commitment, agility hasn’t a chance in any company.