Enterprise Agility: Being Agile in a Changing World
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Author
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Packt Publishing
The biggest challenge enterprises face today is dealing with fast-paced change in all spheres of business. Enterprise Agility shows how an enterprise can address this challenge head on and thrive in the dynamic environment. Avoiding the mechanistic construction of existing enterprises that focus on predictability and certainty, Enterprise Agility delivers practical advice for responding and adapting to the scale and accelerating pace of disruptive change in the business environment.
Agility is a fundamental shift in thinking about how enterprises work to effectively deal with disruptive changes in the business environment. The core belief underlying agility is that enterprises are open and living systems. These living systems, also known as complex adaptive systems (CAS), are ideally suited to deal with change very effectively.
Agility is to enterprises what health is to humans. There are some foundational principles that can be broadly applied, but the definition of healthy is very specific to each individual. Enterprise Agility takes a similar approach with regard to agility: it suggests foundational practices to improve the overall health of the bodyculture, mindset, and leadershipand the health of its various organs: people, process, governance, structure, technology, and customers. The book also suggests a practical framework to create a plan to enhance agility.
About the Author
Steven Jay Cohen has been telling stories his whole life, and has worked professionally as a storyteller since 1991. A classically trained actor, he has worked both on stage and behind the microphone for most of his career. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Steven now resides in scenic western Massachusetts.
--This text refers to the audioCD edition.Review
We are lucky to have discovered Sunil's handbook. We are lucky that he has taken the time to document his wisdom, and, finally, we are lucky that we have resolved to apply it and get better.
--Dr Linda Rising, Co-author of Fearless Change and More Fearless ChangeLike it or not, we live in an age of rapid changes, and the pace of change is still accelerating. This book brings a fresh perspective to scaling Agile at the enterprise level. If you want a cookie-cutter style roadmap for Agile, this is not the book for you. Instead, what Sunil's provided is a framework to enable you to create your own roadmap, one that's tailored to your own unique organization and situation. Sunil has years of experience of working closely with Agile teams in large organizations, and he's used that wealth of knowledge and learning from the coalface to produce a book that offers practical advice and encouragement.
--Guo Xiao, CEO, ThoughtWorksSunil Mundra's book is not so much a roadmap for business leaders as it is a real-time, interactive GPS that will guide them around traffic jams and onto the fastest routes to their destinations. Any CEO, division manager or entrepreneur working in a fast paced industry environment who ignores the inhibitors and enablers to agility embedded in Sunil's analysis does so at their own peril.
--Edward J. Ottensmeyer, Ph.D., Dean Emeritus, Graduate School of Management, Clark University, USA --This text refers to the paperback edition.- Drive agility-oriented change across the enterprise
- Understand why agility matters (more than ever) to modern enterprises
- Adopt and influence an Agile mindset in your teams and in your organization
- Understand the concept of a CAS and how to model enterprise and leadership behaviors on CAS characteristics to enhance enterprise agility
- Understand and convey the differences between Agile and true enterprise agility
- Create an enterprise-specific action plan to enhance agility
- Become a champion for enterprise agility
- Recognize the advantages and challenges of distributed teams, and how Agile ways of working can remedy the rough spots
- Enable and motivate your IT partners to adopt Agile ways of working
Enterprise Agility is a tool for anyone with the motivation to influence outcomes in an enterprise, who aspires to improve Agility. Readers from the following backgrounds will benefit: chief executive officer, chief information officer, people/human resource director, information technology director, head of change program, head of transformation, and Agile coach/consultant.
- Fast-Paced Change - Threat or Opportunity?
- From Agile to Agility
- Enterprise as a Living System
- Mindset and Culture
- Leadership
- Organization Structure
- Process
- People
- Technology
- Governance
- Customer
- Distributed Teams
- Technology Partners
- Framework for Action
- Facilitating Change
