agile companies Archive - agile Companies

Digital change 21. March 2021

Digital Darwinism and digital business

“Customers increasingly see themselves as self-determined individuals. They inform themselves, buy on the Internet and shape brand and product perceptions through self-created content and reviews “(Karl Heinz Land). We understand “digital Darwinsmus” when technology and society change faster than companies are able to adapt to them (Kreutzer / Land). Adapt or die Survival of the fittest: Darwin’s theory can best be transferred to the digitization of companies. Because the struggle for survival also takes place there. The strongest is the one who manages to react quickly to technological changes, adapts his business model to customer expectations, uses knowledge profitably and outperforms his opponent (start-up scene).So the success factor seems to be the speed of your own digitization. Kreutzer and Land speak of a change from CEO to CDO (see figure). According to the two authors, a modern CDO should aim to “destroy” what already exists in order to make room…

Agile organization 21. March 2021

How can you implement the Spotify model in traditional companies?

Companies have always been in constant change. Be it in terms of technology or organization. Now that agile methods have found their way into companies, the credo is now to synchronize various agile and classic methods and to break up classic hierarchies in order to make your own organization faster and more flexible. One approach to this can be the Spotify model, which has been gaining more and more importance since 2014. But German companies are characterized by special processes and a long tradition – in contrast to Spotify, which started out on the greenfield. So is it possible to just copy the Spotify model? Certainly not! In this article, I would like to show my experience in introducing and adapting the Spotify model for a fictional German company and underpin it with my experience of the last 2 years from my professional experience with the Spotify model. For general…

Careers in IT 21. March 2021

Maintaining a balance between short-term and long-term success

The pressure on results increases in the short term, the pressure of expectations grows in the long term. The following scenario sounds familiar to you: On the one hand, managers and customers demand quick decisions and immediate success without much consideration for the day after tomorrow and, on the other hand, the company should be made fit for the future. Issues such as sustainability, compliance and new technologies should find their way into the company proactively and at an early stage. What are the reasons: Political instability, new trends, new technologies, competitors and a still unknown Generation Z make long-term planning almost impossible. Even employees seem to have the motto when changing employers: “After three years you can, after five years you have to!” to be taken very seriously. Often the reasons mentioned force managers to opt for short-term success, as this is foreseeable and measurable. But how can you…

Agile organization 21. March 2021

Workshop: Defining a team’s vision, values and guidelines #Team culture

The culture of a team is crucial for the success and efficiency in the organization. In the course of restructuring a department, I did workshops with over 90 employees and 8 teams to find your own vision and values. I would like to introduce this here and offer the slides for download. Tip: Download the slides for the workshop What is team culture? I understand team culture as the Processes,Habits,Traditions,knowledge andexperience a group of individuals. What are the types of team culture? I believe that there are different teams in the company and that there are also good sides to them. On the one hand, there are teams that have a high level of orientation towards each other and who actually don’t care what work you do. They just have fun together. This is a great thing, especially for tasks that are not so exciting! On the other hand, there…

Agile organization 21. March 2021

Free download: Agility as a consequence or requirement of digitization

Companies have always been in constant change, which is nowadays closely linked to the buzzwords “digitization” and “agility”. Agile methods can pave the way for targeted digitization, especially in complex projects, and, on the other hand, digital technologies promote a more agile way of working. Through group discussions with managers from medium-sized IT companies, this article focuses on the question of whether agility is a prerequisite or a consequence of targeted digitization. This article is aimed at decision-makers from medium-sized IT companies who want to increase the level of agility in the company in the context of increasing digitalization. Download the paper (click here)

Agile organization 21. March 2021

Scrum in corporations – how do I avoid agile Taylorism?

I blog a lot about medium-sized companies and thus also about the specific problems they have. However, I do not want to neglect the specific problems of large corporations. To this day I am interested in the specific problems with scaling Scrum on a large scale. Managers from three different corporations wrote to me via my blog asking me to come over. Of course I gladly accepted this invitation. The aim was an intensive professional exchange (4h). The agenda of the workshop was as follows: What is the current status of the scaling of Scrum in corporations? What are the challenges? How could this be solved? tip : You are welcome to read additionally what the Differences between medium-sized companies and corporations are. Scaling agility in corporations The last time I was really active as an agile consultant in corporations in 2015, the first teams were organized according to agile…

Agile organization 21. March 2021

OKRS: the agile management method

Lately, a lot of my contacts have been talking about the term Objective Key Results (OKRS). This is a new management method that sets goals based on key performance indicators. But what is actually behind it? What are Objective Key Results (OKRS) The method was invented by Andy Grove and John Doerr and first mentioned on Google in 1999. You can currently find the method at Oracle or Twitter, for example. The T3N describes this as follows: Measurable key results are assigned to each objective (objective). The successes are measured at regular intervals and new OKRs are defined. The OKRS are not determined at the company level, but are negotiated with each team. A manager then has the task of synchronizing these together with all employees and adapting them to the company’s goals. The idea behind the goals is that they cannot be fully achieved and are therefore an incentive.…

Agile organization 21. March 2021

Between tradition and change – the story of an organizational rebel

“It is they who drive the transformation of companies and industries: courageous lateral thinkers, risk-takers who are different and visionaries. Every change, every innovation needs people who think beyond borders, question the status quo and convince others of their ideas. We call them thought leaders, rebels, or drivers”so Haufe in the invitation to the latest blog parade with the hashtag organizational rebels. I would like to participate in this and have set myself to answer the following questions on this topic: What are my very personal experiences in my life as a rebel? What best practices can I share – and what have been my biggest mistakes that others can learn from? In the first step I would like to tell my very personal story about a change in which I was involved for a whole year. From this story I derive best practices that can help an organizational rebel…

Medium-sized companies 4.0 21. March 2021

Special features and characteristics of SMEs in contrast to large companies

In my PhD I research with a focus on SMEs and I am often asked what the difference is and why SMEs have to be researched separately. Many also like to exchange ideas with me about SME 4.0 and ask themselves why I sometimes strongly separate my articles into SMEs and large companies. I would now like to give you an answer to that. Characteristics of SMEs The entire German corporate landscape is predominantly dominated by small and medium-sized companies (99.3% of all companies are SMEs in Germany), which are an important pillar of the German economy due to their innovative ability and experience. According to the definition of the EU (IfM Bonn 2018), SMEs are divided into three categories: Small business (up to 9 employees and 2 million euros in sales) Small companies (up to 49 employees and 10 million euros in sales) Medium-sized companies (up to 249 or…

Digital change 21. March 2021

Agility – a prerequisite or consequence of digitization?

Agility is on everyone’s lips and numerous companies are promoting internal digitization in order to remain attractive to specialists and customers. There is also an intense debate about the role of agility in digital change in the literature. The core issue is a chicken and egg problem: Should agility be increased first in order to digitize, or does agility increase automatically with digitization? Debate about agility in the context of digitization The debate about the digitization of organizations is by no means new and does not directly address agile organizations. As early as 1985, Bair examined the changes in organizations due to the so-called personal computer (PC) and called for a debate about the digitization of organizations, which, however, only had other noteworthy publications since the turn of the millennium, and since 2012 an increasing number of publications. There are mainly two opinions on the design of this digital organization.…