The Business Agility Report

RAISING THE B.A.R. | 2ND EDITION, 2019

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE.................................................................................... 3
KEY FINDINGS........................................................................... 4
METHODOLOGY......................................................................... 5
SURVEY DEMOGRAPHICS........................................................ 6
BUSINESS AGILITY MATURITY................................................ 8
CHALLENGES ALONG THE JOURNEY......................................15
BUSINESS AGILITY SUCCESSES........................................... 18

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PREFACE BY STEVE DENNING
In a world of accelerating change, increasing complexity, rapidly changing technology,
digitization and the internet, many organizations are still locked in the slow-moving, top-
down, bureaucratic practices and processes of 20th century bureaucracy. They are finding
it difficult to sense and respond to disruptive shifts in the marketplace. Their very capacity
to survive, let alone thrive, is in question.

By contrast, organizations that are capable of delivering instant, intimate, frictionless value
at scale to customers are creating a world in which people, insights and money interact
quickly, easily and cheaply. For organizations that are able to adapt to change for their
customers’ benefit, the potential is enormous, and their future is bright. As a result, most
firms now give high priority to becoming more agile.

The business agility movement began in earnest in software development in the

aftermath of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, issued in 2001. Since then,
the movement has spread to the management of entire organizations, including the very
largest and most valuable firms.

Yet a shift in management toward greater agility at the enterprise level poses major
challenges for leadership. Entrenched business processes, practices, values and attitudes don’t
change easily or quickly. Firms are finding that Agile transformation journeys typically take
place in terms of years, not weeks or months, with many setbacks as well as forward progress.

The “2019 Business Agility Report” is a valuable contribution to our understanding of how
the Agile transformation journey looks and feels to those who are undertaking it. The self-
reported findings of some 453 respondents in 274 organizations from around the world
convey a vivid picture of both the opportunities and the challenges along the way.

The report illustrates the passion and intensity of those involved in the business agility
movement. In particular, it points to their belief in the primacy of delivering value for
customers (ahead of making money for the company or shareholders), a prioritization of
outcomes ahead of outputs, the need to master “agile basics,” the alignment of agile
practices throughout the firm, and incentives for staff to act in the interests of the customer
at all times.

Yet the report is also a sobering account of the obstacles along the way, particularly in
larger organizations that suffer from risk-averse cultures, organizational silos, bureaucratic
layers, workforce passivity, traditional mindsets and, above all, lack of strongly supportive
leadership at the top.

Nevertheless, the report shows the respondents’ strong belief that the focus on business
agility is leading to enhanced customer and employee satisfaction, speed-to-market, market
success, collaboration and communication, accountability, and improved ways of working.

Make no mistake, the business agility revolution is well under way. This report offers
indispensable information on the current state of play.

Steve Denning
Author of The Age of Agile

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KEY FINDINGS
Recently, 453 respondents from 274 companies around the world took part in the 2019
Business Agility Report. This rates their maturity and shares their insights, challenges and
successes.

Continuing the theme from last year, the survey for the 2019 Report found that, while
most organizations rate their current business agility maturity relatively low, they
have enthusiasm and hope for the future. Many respondents report that they are
struggling with systemic leadership issues relating to trust, investment and culture
while maintaining ongoing momentum in their business agility journey.

Deeper analyses of the data, and comparison to the 2018 survey, confirmed significant and
encouraging benefits for organizations reporting higher levels of business agility, including:

Increased Faster Improved Greater

revenue, market turnaround times relationships with transparency and
share and brand and higher- their customers higher employee
recognition quality offerings engagement

PREDICTIVE INDICATORS
The most exciting result was the discovery of three key predictors of business agility in
both the 2018 and 2019 studies. That is, organizations who report higher ratings in these
three characteristics also report higher overall business agility and associated benefits.

By funding business outcomes (rather than specific work outputs or

projects), adaptive funding models and associated governance processes
allow organizations to quickly and easily invest in new products or services
as soon as market opportunities arise and, just as quickly, stop or change
FUNDING work that isn't delivering the expected business value.
MODELS

By designing flexible work processes that are both efficient and

customer-centric, value streams allow organizations to tightly
VALUE integrate teams from across the organization in service of maximizing
STREAMS value creation for the customer.

By encouraging a culture of learning and experimentation to thrive,

organizations will continuously improve both what they do and (more
importantly) how they do it, thus reducing costs, improving efficiency,
RELENTLESS and delivering greater value to customers.
IMPROVEMENT

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METHODOLOGY
This study investigated organizational business agility maturity against the Domains of
Business Agility, as well as examined overall benefits and challenges. The study was
conducted through a voluntary online survey where respondents were asked a series of
demographic questions about their organization and invited to share the top challenges
and benefits they have seen to date. Finally, respondents self-assessed their organizational
business agility maturity against 26 characteristics across five key areas (Customers,
Relationships, Leadership, Operations and Individuals).

The survey data was anonymized for this report.

Respondents were asked to provide a rating from 1-10 for each characteristic; with 1-6
classified as low-moderate maturity and 7-10 as high materity. In the context of each
characteristic, the ratings were classified as either;
Pre-Crawl (1-2) - the organization mostly follows traditional processes.
"Practically speaking, the purpose of our company is to make money for the
owners or shareholders, regardless of what is written on the mission statement.”
Crawl (3-4) - the organization is just getting started with business agility.
“Our strategic vision is clearly aligned to customer value, yet operational decisions
tend to prioritize company profits.”
Walk (5-6) - the business agility basics are in place and more advanced methods
are being explored. "We have developed a clear vision of customer value which
guides decisions at all levels of the organization and creates a culture of customer
orientation.”
Run (7-8) - the organization has made significant strides towards business agility.
"There is strong alignment between what the shareholders, executives, team
members and customers want.”
Fly (9-10) - the organization is a global business agility leader. “Our organization’s
structure, policies and procedures incentivize our teams to act in the customer’s
best interests at all times. When there is a tradeoff between what is good for the
customer and what is good for the company, we prioritize the customer.”
The percentage of Run or Fly (7+) levels can be considered a “favorable score” for each
characteristic. Specific examples were given at each range to help respondents select a
consistent rating.

Statistical analyses were then applied to validate the accuracy of the 2019 data, the
comparison to 2018 data and affirm the findings for key hypotheses outlined in this report.

To see the questions, or to take the survey yourself, visit:

https://agilityhealthradar.com/business-agility-survey/

To learn more about the Domains of Business Agility, visit:

https://businessagility.institute/learn/domains-of-business-agility/

To learn more about the statistical methodology underpinning the results, visit Orchestrated:
https://orchestrated.io/research/bar2019/

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SURVEY DEMOGRAPHICS
We surveyed a diverse range of organizations, representing 37 countries across 23
industries, and ranging in size from four to 400,000 employees. The only consistent
factor between them is that they have all taken on the goal to become an “Agile”
organization. Some have just started the journey, while others have been leaders for
nearly a decade.

COMPANY SIZE
Respondents represent organizations of all sizes.

32 % 11% 14% 20 % 24 %
0 - 50 51 - 200 201 - 1,000 1,001 - 10,000 10,001 +
employees employees employees employees employees

INDUSTRIES REPRESENTED
Thirty-five percent of respondents state that their industry is being disrupted or faces
unpredictable market conditions. Only the Healthcare, Manufacturing and Agriculture
industries report being predictable and stable today. Confidence in a company's ability
to respond to changing market conditions is relatively low.

% of Respondents
Consulting 30%
Information Technology 26%
Financial Services & Insurance 17%
Manufacturing, Automotive, &
Aerospace 4%
Energy, Utilities, & Mining 4% Predictable
Entertainment & Hospitality 4%
Unpredictable
Healthcare 2%
Education 2% Volatile
Transport 1%
Agriculture 1%
Other 8%

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 WHO’S RESPONDING
Individual contributors include Agile coaches and similar roles. External partners or
consultants are not employed by the surveyed organization, but work closely with them
and are responding on their behalf.

External Partner or Consultant

Individual Contributor
LOB/Division Leader
Senior Executive

Manager
C-Level

17 % 9 % 8 % 27 % 19 % 20 %
OPERATING REGIONS
Respondent companies operate in the following regions:

28%
WORLDWIDE

22%
North America
vs 29% in 2018
vs 9% in 2018
7% Asia

6% vs 6% in 2018 vs 14% in 2018

25%
South America

12%
vs 16% in 2018
EMEA
Oceania

BUSINESS AGILITY IS A GLOBAL TREND

2019 VS. 2018
While there were more survey respondents overall, for the most part respondent demographics were
similar to the 2018 Report. The most significant shift was an increase in respondents from outside North
America – specifically Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe. This shows that business agility is a global trend.

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BUSINESS AGILITY MATURITY
We designed the survey’s questions to gauge the business agility maturity of respondent
organizations. The intent is to understand what organizations are doing, how they are
performing, and overall global trends.

79%
4.4
Average business agility maturity (Walking)
of companies have low business
agility fluency (< 7)

Following on from 2018, organizations returning to the survey in 2019 have developed a
greater understanding of their transformational journey and are therefore providing a more
accurate, albeit lower, rating. The only characteristic that scored significantly higher in 2019
is Supporting Functions (1.0 point increase), with many organizations reporting expanding
the scope of their business agility transformations across more divisions (such as Finance,
Marketing or Sales).

No matter how we slice the data (whether by region, industry, company size or respondent),
the average business agility maturity is well below the minimum “favorable” Run or Fly
ratings (7.0+). Across all characteristics, the average maturity rating is between 4.1 (Supply
Chain & Network) and 5.4 (Understand The Customer) – all within the Walking range.

Of particular note, three key predictors to overall business agility arise from organizations
reporting Run or Fly ratings (7.0+) in the 2018 and 2019 studies. These organizations regularly
report high ratings in the Funding Model, Value Stream, and Relentless Improvement
characteristics.

Courtesy of

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DOMAINS OF BUSINESS AGILITY
Each of the five key areas of the survey (Customer, Relationships, Leadership, Operations
and Individuals) are broken down into 13 domains of Business Agility, which are further
broken down into 26 characteristics. In 2019, the top two domains, in terms of maturity,
were Customer and One Team at 5.0 and 4.9, respectively. The standard deviation for all
domains was between 2.4 and 2.7 points.

Domains of Business Agility vs. Maturity Ratings

Customer
One Team
Process Agility
Strategic Agility
Board
People Management
Ownership & Accountability
Growth Mindset
Structural Agility
Workforce
Craft Excellence
Partners
Enterprise Agility
0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 10.0

BUSINESS AGILITY CHARACTERISTICS

Top 5 Competencies Lowest 5 Competencies

Board Focus 55% Supporting Functions 42%
Understand The Customer 54% Funding Models 43%
Customer As Purpose 52% Engagement Policies 44%
Unity of Purpose 52% Measure What Matters 45%
Vision 51% Supply Chain & Network 45%

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 COMPANY SIZE CORRELATES TO BUSINESS AGILITY
It should come as no surprise that small organizations have more agility than large
ones. This plateaus at around 200 employees, with the maturity of larger organizations
between 0.7 to 1.7 points lower. Smaller organizations outperform larger organizations
in both “Value Streams” and “Collective Ownership” (an average of 29% improvement).
Inversely, there is less than 4% variation between large and small organizations for each
of Ecosystems, Market Experimentation and Accountability.

While large companies have other benefits, and in line with the trend from 2018,
no respondent rated any large organization (above 10,000 employees) as Running
or Flying (7.0 or above).

1 - 10 employees

11- 50 employees

51 - 200 employees

201 - 1,000 employees

1,001 - 5,000 employees

5,001 - 10,000 employees

10,001 + employees

Courtesy of

5.4 5.4

4.8
4.8

4.1
3.8
3.7

Average Maturity
0 - 50 51 - 200 201 - 1,000 1,001 - 10,000 10,000+
Employees Employees Employees Employees Employees

2019 VS. 2018

Compared to 2018, there is less variation between small and large companies. There was a 26% difference
in 2018, whereas this year it is only 17%. This can be attributed to increasing maturity in respondents as
they progress on their journey.

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 TOP 3 INDUSTRIES

5.3 4.6 4.4

Consulting Retail, Entertainment & Hospitality Information Technology

When examining the range of responses, Consulting companies have the highest median
scores followed by Retail, Entertainment & Hospitality and Information Technology*.
There is no meaningful variation when small (<50) companies are excluded from the
analysis.

* We excluded industries with less than 10 responses, such as Education (6.0) and
Transport (4.7)

2019 VS. 2018

There has been a significant change compared to 2018, with Financial Services & Insurance companies
dropping from an average of 4.3 maturity to 3.7. In addition, more industries have companies rated in
the Run and Fly range (7.0+). Last year, only Consulting, Information Technology, and Financial Services
rated 7.0+. This year sees Manufacturing, Automotive & Aerospace, Education, Retail, Entertainment &
Hospitality, Healthcare and Transport also rating highly.

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 BUSINESS AGILITY JOURNEY

4.2
4.7 4.6
6.8
69%
of respondents have been on the
4.1
3.9 journey for less than three years.

% of Respondents
21% 24% 25% 12% 14% 5%
2019 Average Maturity (0-10)
< 1 Year 1-2 Years 2-3 Years 3-5 Years 5-8 Years 8+ Years

There is no significant variation in the upward trend when

adjusting for company size or high-maturity organizations.

Point variation between companies on the journey for <1 year vs 8+ years
10.0

8.0
2.7 2.8 2.5 3.2 3.1 3.0 3.2
6.0 1.8 2.6 2.5 2.0
2.6
1.9
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Some characteristics, like “Customer” or “Enterprise Agility,” have a small variation

regardless of how long the organization has been on the journey (less than 20%
increase). Whereas others, like “Growth Mindset,” “Structural Agility” and “One Team”
improve dramatically (over 30%).

2019 VS. 2018

For companies that provided non-anonymous data in both 2018 and 2019, those that have been on the
journey for 8+ years saw the biggest year-over-year improvement, whereas companies moving into their
second year of transformation actually reported a decrease in business agility.

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 BUSINESS AGILITY AROUND THE WORLD
Despite appearing to show a significant variation, when correcting for company size,
reporting role, and length of business agility journey, there was no significant statistical
difference in the level of maturity across different geographic locations.

It was originally expected that North America and Europe would rate significantly higher
than Asia and Oceania, but this is not the case.

Average Maturity (0-10)

4.7
WORLDWIDE
Respondents (%)

22% 7%

5.0 25% 4.5 Asia

North America
6%
12%

4.6 3.7
South America
EMEA 4.0
Oceania

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 PERCEPTION OF BUSINESS AGILITY

5.4 4.1 5.1 3.9 4.3

C-Level LOB/Division Manager Individual Contributor External Partner

Respondents within the same organization give a wide variation in ratings depending on
their position; within 1.5 points on average, with the largest variation between Individual
Contributors and C-level respondents. External parties (Suppliers, Partners, External
Coaches etc) generally gave less extreme ratings (both high and low) than employees.

2019 VS. 2018

There are significant variations from the 2018 survey data. Both Line of Business (LoB)/Divisional Managers
and Individual Contributors rate their organizations lower (0.9 points and 1.1 points respectively), while
External Partners rate their client organizations 0.5 points higher on average. Further research is required to
understand why.

WHO’S LEADING THE TRANSFORMATION

Respondents rate business agility maturity significantly higher when the C-suite or Board
of Directors lead the journey, compared to those led by a Line of Business (LoB) Leader
(11% higher).

4.9 4.8
% of Respondents
4.2
3.8 Average Maturity

19% 18% 36% 14% 14%

Line of Business Senior C-Level Board Other

Leaders Executive Level

2019 VS. 2018

Compared to the 2018 report, the average maturity for LoB and Senior Executive-led transformations remains
stable, while it has decreased for C-level- or Board-led transformations. This is mostly attributed to more
respondent companies getting starting with their transformation.

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CHALLENGES ALONG THE JOURNEY
All business agility journeys have their own challenges. We asked respondents to
describe the top challenges they are facing and how they are addressing them. Several
common themes emerged across all organizations. Compared to 2018, Leadership
remains the top challenge, with Change Management and Culture increasing in
importance to constitute the top-three challenges.

Top 10 Themes for Addressing Challenges Along the Journey

Leadership Style
Change Management
Culture
Agile Mindset
Alignment
Sponsorship
Customer
Silos
Transformation

LEADERSHIP STYLE
Respondents indicated that, by a large margin, leadership style is the biggest challenge
to business agility adoption faced by most organizations. Related to leadership, qualitative
analysis revealed the challenges of lack of buy-in and insufficient support for the Agile
implementation.

Industry practitioners suggest that with the right mindset and associated organizational
support, a leader sets the tone for the entire organization. Yet often, the inverse is also
true – in the absence of a motivating leader, the organization can stagnate.

In some organizations, leaders continue to use leadership styles and behaviors that are
consistent with the legacy culture, and not the new culture that the organization is trying to
instill. This sends a mixed message to the rest of the organization. Leaders should strive to
be aware of how they are modeling the new culture and Agile mindset and be mindful of
their leadership style to ensure that it is consistent with the goals that the business agility
journey is trying to achieve.

Recommendation
“Our senior leadership lacks the Be mindful of your leadership style. From day
understanding that it takes more one of your business agility journey, strive to
than just tech teams 'doing' Agile." model the new leadership styles and behaviors
– BAI SURVEY RESPONDENT that are consistent with your organization’s
goals for transformation. How you show up
as a leader will be noticed and will often be
emulated by your workforce.

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CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Respondents indicated that change management practices are an ongoing challenge
to business agility. Specifically, the difficulties in moving away from established ways of
working, and an inconsistent understanding of what business agility is, were identified in
the qualitative analysis.

Industry practitioners suggest that many organizations start seeing positive results with
business agility and then, for a variety of reasons, these organizations revert back to their
old ways and the benefits erode.

It is suggested that this happens because organizations have not paid enough attention
to classic change management principles to help enable the new culture and new ways
of working. Organizations often mistakenly think that we are only talking about process,
and underinvest in the enablement activities – like coaching – that are actually needed.
Often there is misalignment or a lack of clarity about vision and goals. Communication
is often neither clear, nor timely. In some organizations, instead of feeling like it is being
invited to be an active participant in the change, the workforce feels that the change is
being done to them.

Recommendation “We struggle to properly staff

[our transformation] with enough
Make change management a core competency for change agents to get any scale.”
the workforce as a whole, instead of a specialty
skill that only a few select specialists can perform. – BAI SURVEY RESPONDENT

CULTURE
“[We have a] risk-averse culture [which forms] silos and layers of bureaucracy."
– BAI SURVEY RESPONDENT

Respondents indicated that cultural challenges are an ongoing impediment to business

agility. Related to culture, scaling and growth issues were identified in the qualitative analysis.

Industry practitioners suggest that organizational culture emerges over a long period
of time. If the organization does not take conscious and deliberate steps to try to effect
culture change, this is one reason why culture change often fails to stick – the organization
has many decades of muscle memory that are causing it to act in certain ways in certain
situations. The result is that, in most situations, the organization will soon revert back to the
old sets of actions because not enough has been done to change the core belief systems
that formed the current-state culture. When this happens, the legacy culture resists
transformation and business outcomes are unlikely to be any different from before.

Recommendation
Recognize that increasing business agility and shifting culture requires ongoing
support and attention from the leadership team. Culture is only formed by example:
leaders should be visible in implementing the change, communicate continuously,
offer support and be available to those that report to them.

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AGILE MINDSET
Respondents indicated that establishing and supporting an agile mindset is a barrier
to business agility. In a related way, challenges with the ongoing need to shift mindsets
from the prior state to a more agile one were identified in the qualitative analysis.

Steve Denning defines agile as a mindset that is “described by four values,” “defined by 12
principles” and “manifested through an unlimited number of practices.” The agile mindset
is one particular set of beliefs that is a cornerstone to the culture of an organization
with high maturity in business agility. Important as the agile mindset is for knowledge
workers and teams, it is doubly so for leaders. It is all too easy to fall back to traditional
management styles when work gets hard or markets go soft. Leaders, at all levels of the
organization, need to back the team’s decisions, even when those decisions are not the
same as they would make themselves. Leaders need to provide an environment where it is
safe to fail, so that teams can take appropriate risks and experiment.

Recommendation
"People who do not share the
[agile] mindset are in senior Provide coaching and mentoring on the agile
positions and their attitudes trickle mindset to all levels of the organization, including
down, no matter what is being leaders, knowledge workers, and every role
done at lower levels." in between. Because we are talking about
a mindset shift, and not just learning a new
– BAI SURVEY RESPONDENT process or tool, your people will need more than
just classroom training.

ALIGNMENT
Respondents indicated that organizational alignment to business agility is an ongoing
challenge. This was supported by the qualitative analysis, which also highlighted a
demand for clearer metrics on agility.

Industry practitioners suggest that one of the primary reasons why organizations face
challenges with business agility is a general lack of alignment – among leaders and
across the organization – about the vision and goals for business agility. When this
happens, different parts of the organization start optimizing their implementation of the
strategy according to their own interpretations. They usually have positive intent, but the
end-result is typically that different parts of the organization have become sub-optimized
for their own individual or departmental goals, at the expense of the higher-level shared
set of goals and outcomes. When this happens, it is very unusual for higher-level goals
and outcomes to be achieved.

"Senior management is not

Recommendation bought in [to the transformation]
due to a lack of alignment with
Invite the organization to participate in the
[their] personal objectives."
goal-setting process to ensure not only
that leadership is aligned, but that middle- – BAI SURVEY RESPONDENT
management and the workforce-at-large are too.

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BUSINESS AGILITY SUCCESSES
Respondents were asked to describe the single biggest impact that business agility has
brought to their organization. As with the 2018 report, satisfaction, both customer and
employee, along with market success, are reported to be the greatest benefits from
business agility (58% of responses).

Most Significant Organizational Benefit of Business Agility

Customer Satisfaction
Employee Satisfaction
Market Success
Collaboration & Communication
Ownership Accountability
Adaptive Leadership
Better Ways of Working
Motivation

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
Respondents indicated that customer satisfaction is one of the most significant
organizational benefits realized by organizations that have measurable success with
business agility. Related to customer satisfaction, the benefits of improved relationships
with customers and brand recognition were revealed by the qualitative analysis.

Industry practitioners observe that customer satisfaction can be considered a leading

indicator, and usually other bottom-line outcomes follow. For many organizations,
changing customers’ perceptions is actually one of the primary and explicit goals of their
business agility transformation.

Given that we put the customer at the center of the Domains of Business Agility, it is
very encouraging to find that the organizations that achieve higher levels of maturity
with business agility also report corresponding and measurable success with customer
satisfaction.

"We have improved lead times to our clients [and] our NPS ratings are trending up."

"Our customers love us and perceive us to be more agile than we actually feel."

– BAI SURVEY RESPONDENTS

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EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION
Respondents indicated that employee satisfaction is a significant organizational benefit
realized by organizations that have measurable success with business agility. Related
to employee satisfaction, the benefits of improved employee engagement, increased
transparency and collaboration within the organization were revealed by the qualitative
analysis.

Industry practitioners observe that many organizations are setting explicit goals to
improve employee satisfaction. They recognize the importance of having a high level
of engagement with their workforce, understanding that this will provide them with
competitive advantage in a fast-changing business world where the primary worker
demographic has shifted in favor of knowledge workers. Like customer satisfaction, an
increase in employee satisfaction often has a direct impact on other areas, including
market success.

"[We have] more engaged employees and early signs of nurturing a growth mindset in some
individuals and teams."

– BAI SURVEY RESPONDENT

MARKET SUCCESS
Respondents indicated that market success is a significant organizational benefit for
those organizations that have measurable success with business agility. Related to market
success, the benefits of increased revenues and market share were revealed by the
qualitative analysis.

Industry practitioners observe that one of the primary goals of business agility is to
improve market success. Not just by working more efficiently, but by developing new
ways of delivering customer value and bringing the right products to market faster.
Survey respondents have seen market success through improved business development,
recognition by their customers, increased employee satisfaction and engagement, as well
as through improved product or service delivery.

For some organizations, market success is also about other types of measures that are
aligned to their unique organizational missions, such as societal impact. Given how keen
transformation sponsors are to see a return on the investment they’re making in business
agility transformation, it’s encouraging to see that organizations that achieve maturity with
business agility also realize corresponding business outcomes.

"Our revenue is increasing."

"[Our] early delivery to market was effective to be the market leader."
"Revenue and customer KPIs have been improving."
– BAI SURVEY RESPONDENTS

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SPEED-TO-MARKET
Respondents indicated that speed-to-market is a significant organizational benefit realized
by organizations that have measurable success with business agility. Related to speed-to-
market, the benefits of improvements in development and delivery, which include faster
turnaround times, higher-quality offerings, and more tailored solutions, were revealed by
the qualitative analysis.

Industry practitioners observe that improving speed-to-market is one of the most profound
ways for organizations to create competitive advantage and distinguish themselves from
the competition. Sometimes it is about shortening the time from a new idea for a product
or service to its launch. Sometimes it’s about creating improvement in one area of the
customer value-stream. And sometimes it’s about building adaptability and responsiveness
into how organizations make decisions and fund initiatives so they can capitalize on new
market opportunities. For most organizations, achieving measurable improvements in
speed-to-market will be table-stakes for competing in today’s business climate.

"The small-scale test-and-learn approach is getting us much faster visibility on what is important
to our customers, which is improving time-to-value and time-to-learn."
“[We have] faster time-to-market on products and greater collaboration between teams.”
“We have much quicker iterations, from months to days.”
– BAI SURVEY RESPONDENTS

COLLABORATION AND COMMUNICATION

Respondents indicated that collaboration and communication are significant
organizational benefits realized by organizations that have measurable success with
business agility. Related to collaboration and communication, the benefits of increased
transparency within the organization were revealed by the qualitative analysis.

Industry practitioners observe that organizational complexity is a major impediment to

business agility. Each additional handoff exponentially increases the time and cost to
create value. Many respondents identified significant collaboration, communication and
transparency improvements (with associated time and cost benefits) from their business
agility journey. Alignment, cross-divisional collaboration and interpersonal collaboration
are identified as the three areas with the most significant improvement.

In their current state, most organizations recognize that they have different silos that
don’t work together to a shared purpose. By contrast, organizations that achieve results
with business agility report that different parts of the organization – such as business,
information technology, operations and even external partners – are now working
together as partners in the overall shared success.

"We have developed a common language...to communicate within different units of the
company through continuous discovery.”

“Multiple teams work together [by collaborating] across team, location, and business functions
with short feedback loops.”

“Communication is the key [for our] teams to become more efficient.”

– BAI SURVEY RESPONDENTS

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OWNERSHIP AND ACCOUNTABILITY
Respondents indicated that ownership and accountability are significant organizational
benefits realized by organizations that have measurable success with business agility.

Industry practitioners observe that ownership and accountability are two very difficult
cultural traits to enable in an organization. There are many reasons for this. It’s not as
simple as leadership saying “you are now empowered!” As we show in the Domains
of Business Agility, this is a complex ecosystem in which leaders, partners and the
workforce all need to work together.

To move at the pace of the modern age, organizations must ensure that ownership and
accountability are located at appropriate places in the ecosystem so that timely decisions
can be made – enabling work to flow and opportunities to be seized. Investment in
leadership, individuals and operations will be needed to create the preconditions
and environment that will allow ownership and accountability to emerge. Given how
difficult this is in complex organizations, it’s encouraging to see that organizations that
achieve maturity in business agility are seeing these new cultural traits emerge in such a
measurable manner.

"Within specific areas of the business there is alignment, transparency, and an adoption of
responsibility and ownership that translates into agility for these areas. This is encouraging
and the wins in these areas are creating visibility and awareness that this new agile way of
working may be able to address [the] systemic challenges the rest of the organization faces.”

“Some of the new leaders are pushing for [new] accountability, review, and planning patterns
that should allow the organization to break work up into smaller pieces and measure value
differently.”

“People are more and more willing to change the system instead of following the prescribed
process.”

– BAI SURVEY RESPONDENTS

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SPECIAL THANKS TO

AgilityHealth® is an enterprise business agility enablement company that’s accelerating

the business agility journey. We help large enterprises define a transformation strategy
with our Enterprise Business Agility model, measure and grow at every level with our
AgilityHealth® platform, and develop your Agile talent for the future of work.

https://agilityhealthradar.com

Accenture | SolutionsIQ is the leading business agility transformation consultancy. We

guide our clients to become adaptive, fast-learning businesses – capable of rapidly
delivering customer value and innovation for competitive advantage.

http://solutionsiq.com

orchestrated.
Orchestrated exists to help teams thrive in fast growing and changing organizations by
providing enabling tools and predictive and actionable insights that drive change.

Our Mapper TM suite enables organizations to get a real-time understanding of their

most valuable assets: the people and cross-functional teams, the work they do or will do,
and the organizational structure they work within (now and in future). Using advanced
analytics, predictive insight and principle-based designs MapperTM significantly
accelerates transformation initiatives and flow of work.

https://orchestrated.io

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ADDITIONAL THANKS TO OUR MEMBERS

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