Accelerating Growth – The Impact of Agile Management Principles on Your Business

Increasingly, management’s role is not to organize work, but to direct passion and purpose.” – Greg Satell. It’s no secret that the Agile methodology is becoming increasingly popular among businesses. The combination of improved project success rates and increased revenue and profit makes it an attractive choice. As such, companies like Apple, IBM and many others have adopted agile principles as part of their strategy for growth.

Examining Apple and IBM’s Agile Methodology Success

The results for adopting agile principles speak for themselves – currently 71% of US companies are utilizing Agile in some manner or another according to Zippia (A career expert website), resulting in 64% project success rate over other methodologies such as waterfall (49%). This is why big companies are also jumping on the bandwagon. Apple’s adoption of agile began with software updates; the company was able to deploy regular releases faster than ever before by using a modified version of Scrum to organize small, cross-functional teams that worked in short sprints. Much like how they approach product development today, the purpose was to deliver new features quickly without compromising on quality or design aesthetic – successes which can be seen across all platforms in use today. For IBM’s Global Technology Services (GTS), they had to take a slightly different approach when adopting agile. Fortunately they developed ‘Agile for Services’ methodology to help break down those walls – pushing boundaries while encouraging diverse teams and sustainable paces could work together much more effectively than ever before.

How Agile Principles Propel Exponential Business Growth

When executed properly, these principles can deliver amazing results – from faster customer satisfaction and loyal customers to increased efficiency and decreased costs. By involving team members in decisions and giving them ownership over their work, agile transformation principles provide employees with more autonomy and sense of purpose which can lead to improved motivation. The frequent feedback and fast-paced environment of Agile methodology promote collaboration between developers, engineers, and other employees, resulting in innovative solutions that keep competitors in check while achieving business growth objectives. Finally, the flexibility provided by using an agile approach allows companies to respond quickly with speed needed when adjusting to changing market trends. Wrike (an online platform to streamline workflows) reports that a recent survey by the Organize Agile group found out that almost 50 percent of businesses have been using agile principles consistently for at least three years now. The survey interviewed professionals from 19 different countries. Employers should recognize this as an indication that these methods can indeed deliver increased performance and operational efficiencies that are not found with traditional management approaches.

Agile principles have enabled companies like Apple, IBM and many others to achieve great levels of success by facilitating collaboration between teams, minimizing operational risks and allowing for fast decision-making. Any business looking towards its own growth should leverage these strategies in order to maximize speed, efficiency and progress. Embracing the fundamentals of agility can be a big step forward.