Business agility has become more popular, and many companies strive to implement Agile
methodologies within their company because it delivers prototypes and product/service
improvements fast, it helps teams focus on customers instead of processes and documents, it
empowers team members to think creatively and effectively and it could potentially increase
productivity. However, building business agility requires a fundamental shift in an organization’s way
of working and thinking.
The first challenge arises when companies try to implement Agile methodologies, such as Scrum,
Kanban and Lean Development, without the knowledge about the underlying principles and
consequences it has for the operational business model. Therefore, it is necessary to create awareness
and a shared understanding of business agility as a whole.
Secondly, to increase business agility, systems also need to be responsive so that it can meet and
support the rapid changes. Therefore, companies face challenges around current processes and the
integration of different systems across the company (Chen, et al., 2009). In order to respond to this
challenge, companies can discover and analyze the current capabilities of the system, even when it is
not used previously or companies can create an integration platform that allows the firm to connect
systems across the company.
Thirdly, a company can face resistance from employees, which makes it hard to implement the (new)
way of working. For example, employees do not want to change because it currently works for them.
In order to improve this culture, companies need to have conversations with their employees and be
transparent about their goals, wishes and upcoming changes.
Thus, business agility comes with its challenges but when companies actively try to integrate this way
of working, it can contribute to better results.
Bibliography
Chen, D. Q., Davis, A., Boudreau, M.-C. & Cochran, J. D., 2009. Addressing Business Agility Challenges
with Enterprise Systems. [Online]
Available at:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220500621_Addressing_Business_Agility_Challenges_wit
h_Enterprise_Systems
