http://www.europeanbusinessreview.com 23In today’s rapidly-changing corporate world,
it’s imperative for businesses and organisations
to respond and adapt more quickly than ever
before. Digital transformation provides opportu-
nities by optimising resource usage, innovating
capabilities and creating lasting relationships
with customers. Throughout the organisations’
journey in digital transformation, agility is one
of the most important aspects to be looked at. In
this interview, we had the pleasure of a conver-
sation with Vlerick Business School’s Professor
Stijn Viaene, who talked to us about the impor-
tance of agile transformation and how it drives
and delivers digital transformation.
Scaling agility is a huge topic right now,
especially to organisations during their
digital transformation journey. Could you tell
us exactly what this is about? Does it matter
to all organisations?
Agility is what is required from organisations
that want to thrive in turbulent environments, like
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and most of all, responsiveness to change.
Today, people almost automatically associate
agility with the introduction of self-organising,
multidisciplinary teams. These teams are empow-
ered to decide autonomously, without having to
escalate decision making all the time. Publicly
available models for implementing agile team-
work, such as Scrum or Kanban, have become
increasingly popular.
Now, if you only have one such team, which is
not too big, composed of highly competent people,
and a team with a great team dynamics, then these
agile setups can really work miracles. It is what fuels
the success of digital start-ups.
On the other hand, what if you have 10, 20, 80
or more of these agile teams all running initiatives
at the same time? With all sorts of dependenciesScaling Agility:
The Fuel that Drives
the Organisation’s
Digital Transformation
INTERVIEWWITH
Professor Stijn Viaene
,.
Agility