{"id":11200,"date":"2019-08-26T06:32:51","date_gmt":"2019-08-25T22:32:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.ekipa.co\/insights\/blogs\/things-you-should-know-about-agile-and-innovation\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T19:00:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T11:00:38","slug":"things-you-should-know-about-agile-and-innovation","status":"publish","type":"insights_articles","link":"https:\/\/ekipa.co\/en-id\/insights\/blogs\/things-you-should-know-about-agile-and-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"Things you should know About Agile and Innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Hugo dissects the key essential elements of Agile and Innovation as key drivers in today’s volatile and uncertain market that is constantly disrupted by startups and technological advancements.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n

I\u2019m reading Eric Ries,<\/a> \u2018The Startup Way<\/a>\u2019 for the second time. The book strikes me as one of the best books about \u2018modern enterprise management every written. I did an MBA and read loads of (old) books about management. In today’s volatile market, disrupted by startups and technological innovations, we need a new paradigm. Managers that have gone through the same books as I did 20 years ago need to reinvent themselves.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Are you Caesar or Scientist?<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

An interesting passage:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n

\u2018I asked him (Jeff Immelt) to imagine the following: If I selected an employee of the company at random, from any level or function or region, and that employee had an absolutely brilliant idea that would unlock a dramatic new source of growth for the company, how would he or she get it implemented? Does the company have an automatic process for testing a new idea, to see if it is actually any good? And does the company have the management tools necessary to scale this idea up to maximum impact, even if it doesn\u2019t align with any of the company\u2019s current lines of business? That\u2019s what a modern company does: harness the creativity and talent of every single one of its employees.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

From a leadership perspective it\u2019s about this difference, also described by Eric: \u2018It\u2019s the difference between \u2018playing Caesar (deciding which projects live or die) and \u2018playing the scientist (being perpetually open to search and discovery). <\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The past few years, I have helped many Indonesian enterprises to become more \u2018agile\u2019<\/strong>. Through training<\/a> and coaching<\/a>, we change the way their people work. And that\u2019s in my perspective what Agile at its core is about: changing the way people work. What Agile doesn\u2019t address is what those people work on.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Agile helps to create self organised, cross functional teams; but it doesn\u2019t help those teams to create breakthrough innovation. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

One of the role models of \u2018Agile as Innovation\u2019 in Indonesia<\/strong> is Jenius<\/a>. BTPN recognised the opportunity in becoming a digital consumer bank. PeterJan<\/a>, in my view \u2018the father of Jenius\u2019, joined BTPN and got his own playground to build a digital banking app. He got his own budget, his own floor in the bank and could hire his own team. Based on the success of that way of creating innovation, BTPN tried to replicate this model with other products and departments. Unfortunately today, the leadership team that initiated Jenius and the entrepreneurial program have left the bank.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The top executive who sponsored Jenius didn\u2019t play Caesar. He told Peterjan \u2018if your assumptions and plan are correct, we can create a new way of banking in Indonesia. You have my blessing, now go out and prove it works\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Creating a Startup Engine<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

If you are in a leadership position, you\u2019ll probably think \u2018yes that sounds great but how to replicate the model of BTPN in my own enterprise?\u2019. What I recognise is that most executives will think of all the reasons this worked in BTPN but won\u2019t work in their environment. For this to start, we obviously first need someone who believes this can work. And then sets out to clear the way. While we don\u2019t need Caesar to decide what different teams work on, we do need Caesar to drive this change towards a modern company, clear obstacles, change policies, create new ways of funding and take risks.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

One of the things I have learned about Indonesia is this: when it comes to execution, things can move very quickly. When I speak to an executive who likes the ideas I share, the thought on his mind is \u2018great, how do we start tomorrow?\u2019. That is: if the start is clear and is a \u2018small step\u2019, things move fast. When it comes to bigger change, especially in big enterprises, things slow down pretty quickly after that initial quick start.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

This means that to get started with creating a startup engine, we need 2 things:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

    \r\n
  1. A simple process to kick of 1 or 2 startup pilot teams<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
  2. A more detailed, \u2018startup transformation roadmap\u2019<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

    For the pilot teams, we need to teach them the lean startup \u2018toolset\u2019. They need to be coached on the principles of exploration, learning, metrics, build-measure-learn loops and iterative work. At Ekipa, we have developed a 90 day innovation challenge for this. For more details on this, download our pdf here<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

    Creating a more detailed startup transformation<\/a> roadmap requires an executive sponsor along with one or more \u2018startup champions\u2019 who can act as change agents. In the early stages, we need to develop a new way of working for the enterprise. This is based on the first pilot team(s). As these teams learn how to develop new products and markets \u2018the startup way\u2019, a new way of working can be created that can be spread to future teams.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

    A few core areas need to be addressed in the transformation roadmap:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

      \r\n
    1. How will we fund the new startups? (budgeting process)<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
    2. Who will make the funding decisions?\u00a0<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
    3. What will happen to people\u2019s career when they make the leap to join an internal startup team?<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
    4. What type of innovation do we want? What type of innovation we don\u2019t want?\u00a0<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
    5. Who will drive the change program?\u00a0<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
    6. How do we \u2018select\u2019 people to join startup teams?\u00a0<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
    7. What type of metrics will we use to decide whether the startups are successful? (innovation accounting)<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

      While the above are pragmatic questions we need to answer in order to get the change process started, the most crucial aspect of such change program is the way leadership gets involved. As Eric describes:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

      Pulling of a transformation<\/strong> is very challenging to pull off. It requires:<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

      > <\/em>leadership skills of a most distinctive kind<\/em><\/strong>, since transformation<\/a><\/strong> puts its leader against the hostile reactions of experienced people whose lives and careers are deeply invested in the status quo<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

      > <\/em>Audacious experimentation<\/em><\/strong>, since beyond the general framework of the startup way, every organisation has to find its own distinctive shape, its own unique adaptations to the specific context in which it operates.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

      > the <\/em>boldness <\/em><\/strong>to invest in sweeping, company-wide change and the <\/em>patience <\/em><\/strong>to wait until just the right moment to make this commitment. The discipline to start with small experiments.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

      > <\/em>the most difficult kind of cross-functional collaboration<\/em><\/strong>: enlisting functional leaders in the creation of new and competing functions, thereby breaking down old functional silos and requiring old enemies to make common cause.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

      Most large enterprises are rich in politics; people love reporting; people spend most of their time in meetings; people are fond of their current role and status and resist change. All these forces work against the change. In order to change this, the effort to become a startup engine needs to be on the C level agenda. Someone in the board or maybe the whole board needs to show \u2018leadership skills of a most distinctive kind\u2019. They all need to be ready to do \u2018audacious experimentation in launching innovative products; but also in changing policies, budgeting and company culture.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

      And this type of change cannot be done hands off. It can not be delegated to 1 person and then be left alone. It needs a board wide support. And it needs a dedicated Caesar who commits him or herself to changing the way the company functions in order to make the startup engine possible.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Hugo dissects the key essential elements of Agile and Innovation as key drivers in today’s volatile and uncertain market that is constantly disrupted by startups and technological advancements.\u00a0 I\u2019m reading Eric Ries, \u2018The Startup Way\u2019 for the second time. The book strikes me as one of the best books about \u2018modern enterprise management every written. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":10841,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","insights_tag":[],"article_categories":[327,340,342,346],"insights_types":[286],"class_list":["post-11200","insights_articles","type-insights_articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","article_categories-agile-innovation","article_categories-agile-startup","article_categories-agile-transformation","article_categories-insights","insights_types-blogs"],"yoast_head":"\nThings You Should Know About Agile and Innovation Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover key insights about agile and innovation, how they work together to drive value, adaptability, and continuous improvement in teams.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ekipa.co\/en-id\/insights\/blogs\/things-you-should-know-about-agile-and-innovation\/\" \/>\n<meta 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