Dr. Dominic Lindner, Autor bei agile Companies

Agile departments 21. March 2021

Agile sales and agile sales

Agility is widespread in software development. But how can the term “agility”, which is also described in business terms with flexibility, be transferred to sales? Let’s take a look at the definition of sales first. The Gabler Wirtschaftslexikon says: “Sales mainly includes the sale of goods; distribution of goods (logistics, marketing logistics), control of the sales force organization and maintenance of the relationships between a manufacturer and retailers or, in the case of direct sales (direct sales), to the end customer. Newer approaches emphasize the great importance of customer management in the context of sales. It should be noted, however, that sales departments in companies often focus on existing customers without the flexibility to tackle new projects and ideas within the department. Often with fatal consequences: If a major customer breaks away, this often means economic difficulties for the entire company. If sales, instead of managing the existing customer base,…

Agile organization 21. March 2021

Agile companies and holocracy

Agility is now more than just a phenomenon in IT. Agility has long established itself outside of IT, in some cases even throughout the company. The first IT service providers are trying to present themselves as agile companies and are introducing a concept called “holocracy” in the course of this. But what exactly is it all about? As part of the research too Agility in companies, I deal with holocracy as one of the Frameworks for agility. In this article, I would like to describe the principle and its relevance for agility in more detail. The agile company In principle, the agile company is a company that has committed itself to striving to adhere to the agile principles. In terms of research, it is also a company that is agile outside of IT. An overview of agile departments see another article on my blog. However, agility is not yet precisely…

Agile departments 21. March 2021

Agile production in Industry 4.0

Production is “the process of the targeted combination of production factors (input) and their transformation into products (products, output)” (Gabler Wirtschaftslexikon). So far, so good – but how do you turn standardized production into agile production? Ultimately, increasing market volatility and growing uncertainty force manufacturing companies to steadily assimilate their own production concepts to changing conditions. Industry 4.0 is intended to represent the fourth industrial revolution: Smart, digitally networked systems ensure automated production. But it’s not just cyber-physical systems which “upgrade” the still largely existing Industry 3.0. AGILE production and new business models Kaufmann (2015, p. 12) shows an initial trend with regard to agile models: The focus with this approach is not exclusively on intelligently communicating machines, but on a fundamental adaptation or even realignment of the (existing) business models. Above all, adapted products and shorter delivery times are taking a step towards agility. The main focus is on…

Agile departments 21. March 2021

Agile management

Agile methods such as Scrum create paradigm shifts in companies and thus revolutionize their own corporate culture. Own beliefs and behaviors, such as ” that’s how you do it “are questioned. At the same time, the door is created for more transparent structures in which employees can contribute more. Accordingly, classic positions are transformed into modern roles in agile companies. Management plays a key role in the successful installation of agile methods. So that executives who have received little attention to date with regard to the introduction of agile methods do not stand in the way of such a revolution, modern managers need a clearly drawn, new picture of their own future role within agile entrepreneurs. The modern manager The figure from Appelo (2010, p. 370) shows the modern, agile manager as a being with many eyes. In order to act successfully, the manager directs his or her own focus…

Agile departments 21. March 2021

Agile product development and agile research

In the context of rapid technological change, especially in the field of automation and information technology, as well as the ever increasing networking of man and machine, the Industry 4.0 before major socially relevant challenges. Challenges that can only be met with innovative, agile methods. Specifically: On the one hand, the development phases for new products must be kept as short as possible, on the other hand, there must be a high degree of permeability for feedback, which, in combination with agile research and development, can quickly respond to any necessary changes in the market and society. Lean startup As early as 2011, Eric Ries showed in the illustration above that precise future planning for a product is no longer possible. Rather, today’s times require a quick release of the respective product in order to be able to collect data after the market launch that can flow into the further…

Agile departments 21. March 2021

Agile Finance and Agile FinTech

Almost every German has a bank account. In the meantime, you can “almost” even (almost) delete it, since even homeless people are no longer allowed to open a basic current account by law. The reason is obvious: without a current account, we are not part of this society. Rent, taxes, credits – cash is nothing today. Anyone who carries large amounts of cash is either a drug dealer or an arms dealer, or maybe some red light boss. Of course, this claim is not true, but it is already clear: the bank account and its deposit money have already won the crusade! In the digital age, however, the good old checking account and the general business model of the established banks are facing several new battles. For example: Deposit vs. Blockchain – Creative FinTechs can be a kind of interface between the New World and the Old World and make…

Work 4.0 21. March 2021

Agile HR

HR (Human Resource) describes the “totality of performance potential (performance reserve) that is made available to a company by its employees” (Gabler Wirtschaftslexikon). The skills of the individual employees are decisive for the success of the company and form the supporting framework of the respective company. HR management (HRM for short) or HR marketing is therefore a crucial discipline that is of significant relevance for the sustainable success of a company. In order to find agile employees, on the other hand, you need agile HR – that is, personnel marketing and personnel recruiting that does not react, but rather acts purposefully, flexibly and actively on current economic conditions. Agile HR can therefore refer to both agile human resources (the agile employee) and agile HR management. In this case, the latter is treated under the term. Agile HR for the company You probably know job advertisements with titles like “Agile Software…

Agile departments 21. March 2021

Agile logistics and the agile supply chain

Logistics “includes all tasks for the integrated planning, coordination, implementation and control of the flow of goods as well as the goods-related information from the generation sinks to the consumption sinks” ( Gabler Business Lexicon ). Furthermore, the task of logistics is to provide the right goods at the right time in the right amount in the right place. Logistics is characterized by a high level of dynamism. Often the definition of which goods actually have to be available at which location and at what time cannot be clarified. So it seems that changeability should be a fundamental element of logistics. For this reason, there has recently been a rethink towards agile logistics. Agile logistics or is it lean? While “Lean” was the absolute keyword in logistics a while ago and every manager proudly showed his Six Sigma Belt, there is now a rethinking towards agile logistics (Valerod 2013, p.…

Agile departments 21. March 2021

Agile Marketing

Why agile marketing? “The basic idea of marketing is the consistent alignment of the entire company to the needs of the market” ( Gabler Lexicon ). Markets in particular are very unstable these days and are constantly subject to new trends. It is precisely to these that modern marketing has to react. Consumers are now also exposed to a great flood of advertising messages. As a result, many customers actually no longer perceive advertising properly. Experts are therefore calling for new ways and methods for modern marketing. But how is modern marketing defined and how agile should my marketing be? In the following I would like to introduce two trends from the literature and try to interpret how agile marketing can help companies. Marketing 3.0 Kotler et al. (2010) defined this new type of marketing with the slogan “From customer to person”. To illustrate this development, they published the following…

Digital leadership 21. March 2021

What is the difference between digital leadership and agile leadership?

Digitization was undoubtedly one of the trending topics in the past year. Contrary to what the talk of the trend suggests, digitization is anything but a temporary phenomenon – it is rather a so-called megatrend: a long-term development that shapes all areas of social life (Source Heap ). In order to implement this, the collective term “Digital Leadership” was formed. Continued to pose Heap the following: Never has the market demanded innovations, solutions and methods so quickly, never has the need for skilled workers been higher and never has work been carried out so closely across borders and time limits. This presents managers with new challenges in personnel management. One possible solution is: agile leadership. So there is agile leadership on the one hand and digital leadership on the other. But what is the difference and which of it is currently optimal in the digital transformation? Agile leadership For executives,…