Executives Rethink Operating Models for Agility

The Project Management Institute (PMI) surveyed over 700 C-suite leaders to define enterprise agility and identify tradeoffs for organizations seeking to achieve it. The research, involving executives across various industries and 12 countries, highlights that continuous adaptation is now standard practice. An overwhelming 93% of senior executives agree that operating models require reassessment at least every five years. More significantly, 65% of organizations are actively adapting and rewriting their business approaches every two years or sooner, indicating a rapid pace of change.

Despite the consensus on the need for reinvention, a substantial barrier persists: 35% of CEOs cited a disconnect between planning and execution as their top challenge. This gap underscores the difficulty in translating strategic decisions into tangible actions. Giles Lindsay, CIO at Agile Delta, emphasizes that "reinvention is not an event; it is a rhythm." He further explains that agility should be viewed as a capability, not a temporary program, with opportunities for testing, learning, and adjustment embedded in every sprint, quarter, and strategy review.

Another critical factor hindering enterprise agility is the prevalence of functional silos over shared accountabilities. Approximately one in four CEOs reported that these silos impede their organization's ability to adapt. For true enterprise agility to be realized, companies must shift their focus towards long-term, enterprise-wide goals and foster cross-functional collaboration. This approach prioritizes collective responsibility over short-term, departmental Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that may lead to sub-optimized outcomes. Howard Yu, a professor at IMD Business School, advocates for embedding agility fully across the entire enterprise to achieve this strategic objective.