Survival of the Fittest. This is not only the Darwin's law in nature. We also tend to transfer this attitude into to our business world. With success?
It is true that companies are generally better positioned if they have relevant resources at their disposal. However, this does not ensure expertise for long-term survival. Especially not with the speed at which the market is developing today. The digitalization requires new competences as an acceleration mechanism. Agility is at the top of the list.
What makes me agile?
Agile appears as a term in various leadership models and is used in an inflationary manner in management tools. But what does it actually mean actually agile to be?
The Duden dictionary says, "testifying to great agility". So fast. Vital. Skilful. And above all adaptable. Flexible. Which brings us back to Darwin. Or the great misunderstanding that it is not the strongest who survive, but the one who creates new options. Like nature, a company should be geared towards diversity and, without years of analysis or planning be able to react to changes.
But now we tend to want to hedge everything. Better once too much calculated than risking it. But the fear of failure paralyses. Sometimes so much so that it immobilises you. And then you get eaten. Conversely, that would be an appeal to be courageous. But is that enough? Daring endeavours are not necessarily promising either. Yes, there's more to being agile than just being brave.
Agile, agile - is that too much for me?
If you transfer agile thinking and action to a company, one thing needs to be considered. One Pursue only works as well as its individual components. In addition to material resources, this includes those that control them. In contrast to things, these are those that have the ability to make agile decisions. However, if a company wants to be agile, this means that every part of the organisation itself must adopt an agile attitude. This also means being courageous. Courageous enough to make their own decisions and take responsibility for them. And that brings us to the much more relevant part of agility in the corporate context. Because being agile can only be actively practised if everyone employees is prepared to feel responsible for it. If you are not used to this, it can initially seem more stressful than simply being the executive hand of a decision-maker. In many corporate cultures, you would have to employees probably need to get used to an independent sense of responsibility.
Survival of the most agile
But the company wants to survive out there in the free market economy. So how do you establish an agile mentality? Firstly, test your own agility, for example. How willing are you to actually try new things, accept coincidences or take other people's ideas seriously - especially if they (initially) contradict your own ideas? How well do you tolerate the complexity of the incalculable? Planning is good and important. But at what point do the same old ways of thinking and processes. These usually result from experience. But when does experience limit us rather than helping us to break new ground?
Of course, we don't want to remain so abstract and are launching a series of articles that deal with agility in the context of project and corporate management and also consider the extent to which a ERP software can support this endeavour or to what extent systems need to change.
Let's get agile!
Agile in the future: Employees in an agile ERP project
Agile into the future: Why companies must become agile to survive
Linear vs. agile: project management in a roundabout way
SUCCESSFULLY THROUGH THE ERP implementation / Implementation methods - classic vs agile
Monolithic ERP systems in SMEs: challenges, solutions and risk management
