How start-ups can stay agile

This article is written by Dr. Stefanie Puckett, an author of the Agile Culture Code Assessment featured on Comparative Agility.

Digital business agility and agile leadership

Startups are born agile. But agility decreases as the organization grows. To actively and sustainably counteract the creeping loss of agility, agile leadership is needed.

Digital business agility as a formula for success

According to the HIF model of the IMD Business School, the following three behaviors of an organization are what make digital business agility:

HYPERAWARENESS
Developments in the market and in technology are constantly monitored. This enables innovative and highly topical products. It also prevents obsolete or outdated products, as the monitoring continues during production and implementation. It is constantly reevaluated whether a product needs to be discontinued, adapted, or expanded in order to be aligned with evolving customer needs or trends.

INFORMED DECISION-MAKING
Collecting and evaluating information and data is key for informed decision-making. Different channels and sources are identified, and new ways of data collection are explored. The data is systematically and consistently included in decision-making processes. Data decide.

FAST EXECUTION
Hyperawareness and informed decision-making will only fully benefit the company if the organization implements them quickly. The speed goes before perfection. Feedback must be responded to and adjustments to new developments must be made immediately. Short decision-making processes and flexibility, but also courage, are needed.

Dealing with the inertia of masses

Digital business agility is what makes startups emerge. There it is, the idea that hits the nerve and is perfectly tailored to customer needs. The flexible organization that focuses its power and implements it quickly. Success is the result. It goes from the idea generation to the implementation phase. Efficiency is increased, and a standard is secured through processes and structures. The company grows and with it the framework that holds it together. Stabilization.

However, this is no place to lean back and relax as you pay the price: decreasing flexibility and less innovative strength. Be alert: Do you constantly question and adjust the strategy and search for new ideas? Or new customers or markets? Are there still resources allocated to explore? Is it still possible to react quickly to feedback? Are you — being honest — still open to change?

Maintaining agility in the long term through agile leadership

While stability automatically results from the inertia of the masses, agility requires effort. It must be continuously stimulated and strengthened. According to the HAVE model (IMD & metaBeratung) that resulted from a global study conducted by the Global Center for Digital Business Transformation, this requires four competencies.

ADAPTABILITY
It is about the willingness and capacity to react immediately to changing circumstances or evolving customer needs. Obtain and use feedback in a targeted manner, e.g. on the business case. Plan on sight. No one should shy away from questioning decisions that have been made and changing their mind.

HUMILITY
Business agility requires the involvement of all minds. This requires equal footing. The amount of information and the complexity alone lead to the fact that the best solutions are developed in cooperation. The ability to react quickly to new situations is not achieved through command and control, but through empowerment and self-organization where value creation happens.

VISIONARY
A strong vision draws attention to the long-term goal of the organization and prevents too much satisfaction with the status quo, with what has already been achieved. It is the vision that gives orientation and focuses all energy on advancement. Adjustments to and changes to the strategy thus become course corrections.

ENGAGEMENT
Collaboration is the key. Not only to develop the best and most creative cross-linked solutions. Engagement also means gaining information and ideas through exchange and interaction with internal and external stakeholders.

In the end, 9 out of 10 start-ups fail because the business case is no longer right or because the start-ups have difficulty winning customers. This is where the competency model helps start-up entrepreneurs to understand what is expected of them: to call up and integrate feedback from customers and on the business model at an early stage and continuously. To establish the right culture early on, the TEC model (in The agile culture code, BusinessVillage) can provide a guide to a future-proof company culture that supports and fosters business agility.

This article was previously shared here.