Darrell Rigby

Sarah Elk

Steve Berez

<article-ideainbrief class="article-ideainbrief">
 <h4 class="ideainbrief-title">Idea in Brief</h4>
 <div class="ideainbrief-contents">
  <h5>The Principle</h5>
  <p>If a company wants to continually outpace competitors, it needs more than lots of agile teams. It requires the company’s top officers—most, if not all, of the C-suite—to embrace agile principles too.</p>
  <h5>The Team</h5>
  <p>An agile leadership team must focus on striking the optimal balance between standardizing operations and pursuing innovations.</p>
  <h5>The Challenge</h5>
  <p>Executives on the team have to play multiple roles: build and run the agile enterprise operating system; oversee business units and functions; serve as mentors and decision makers; and handle the crises of the moment.</p>
 </div>
</article-ideainbrief><p>“Brian Johnson” is the chief executive of a major consumer-goods company that has been remarkably successful over the past decade. Like his predecessors, Johnson runs a tight ship in all aspects of operations, boasting excellence in product and service quality and a finely tuned supply chain. The company capitalizes on economies of scale and enjoys the lowest costs in its industry.</p>

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<p>If a company wants to be fast on its feet, transform end-to-end customer experiences, and continuously outpace competitors, it needs more than lots of agile teams. A truly agile enterprise requires that the company&#8217;s top officers&#8212;most, if not all, of the C-suite&#8212;embrace agile principles, too.</p>
<p>In this article the authors describe how such an agile leadership team functions, how it differs from the conventional corporate-style executive committee and from other agile teams, and what agile means for senior executives&#8217; day-to-day work lives.</p>
<p>The job of a conventional agile team is to create innovative solutions to a problem&#8212;be it the need for a new product or service, a better business process, or an advanced technology to support new offerings. The job of an agile leadership team is to strike the right balance between standardizing operations and pursuing innovation.</p>
<p>Most agile team members dedicate virtually all of their time to their agile roles, but that&#8217;s not possible for executives. They have to simultaneously build and run the agile enterprise operating system, oversee business units and functions, serve as mentors and decision makers, and handle the crises of the moment.</p>

The Agile C-Suite

If a company wants to be fast on its feet, transform end-to-end customer experiences, and continuously outpace competitors, it needs more than lots of agile teams. A truly agile enterprise requires that the company’s top officers—most, if not all, of the C-suite—embrace agile principles, too. In this article the authors describe how such an agile leadership team functions, how it differs from the conventional corporate-style executive committee and from other agile teams, and what agile means for senior executives’ day-to-day work lives. The job of a conventional agile team is to create innovative solutions to a problem—be it the need for a new product or service, a better business process, or an advanced technology to support new offerings. The job of an agile leadership team is to strike the right balance between standardizing operations and pursuing innovation. Most agile team members dedicate virtually all of their time to their agile roles, but that’s not possible for executives. They have to simultaneously build and run the agile enterprise operating system, oversee business units and functions, serve as mentors and decision makers, and handle the crises of the moment.

The Agile C-Suite

Summary.

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