Now it’s about survival. Then you need to have a shared mindset among all employees for the way of working. Everyone must understand that you need to link arms between departments and units and find a new way to work together.
The world around us is changing at an increasingly rapid pace. This applies to technological development, tougher competition, and changing customer needs. Companies’ ability to quickly adapt to changes will be crucial for long-term survival. It’s time to learn from the IT department and implement agile working methods throughout the
Hello there, Ann Karblom, Senior Business Advisor at Implema, you recently held a webinar for Implema’s customers about Business Agility – what is it?
It’s a modern way of working and mindset that gives an organization the ability to quickly pivot and act on new opportunities and changes in a way that creates rapid effects and long-term sustainability. Much indicates that the ability to quickly respond to changes will be crucial for companies’ long-term survival.
We’ve heard about agile working methods before, does this mean everyone should work like the IT department now?
It’s true that agile working methods have long been established in IT. The intention is not that all departments should work exactly like IT, but many organizations are “out of sync.” Therefore, you need to harmonize the way of working in the organization. Not least, for example, HR and finance/accounting functions need to become better equipped for a new reality. They would need to catch up and step forward more clearly. In this way, they can contribute to creating greater room for action and agility for the organization than today. Then you can’t work with calendar-based budgets and forecasts with lock-in effects. You must dare to let go of the calendar-based budget and budget work. Instead, you need to work more event-driven and have a faster and more modern way of working, like Business Agility. It’s about surviving in a rapidly changing world.
Why is Implema offering this now? And more specifically, what can Implema help with in this area?
We see it as an important part of our vision, “to contribute to a sustainable business community of world class.” At Implema, we’re good at implementing and upgrading business systems and how to work efficiently in them, that is, the actual tools, and creating business processes. Now we also want to work more directly with the business side. We want to guide our customers to work in the best and most efficient way with their financial processes. There we see that Business Agility is the future way of working. It enables faster and more sustainable organizations.
From Implema’s side, we and our partners can guide and lead through such a transformation process, to a more modern way of working with financial processes. Here we work with, among other things, Value Landscaping and clear impact goals.
What does it take to be able to transform into an agile organization? Can everyone do it?
Everyone can definitely transform to become more agile. First and foremost, you need clear support from corporate and group management. It’s about a shared mindset that you need to create throughout the organization, so corporate or group management must own the issue.
It’s also about creating and enabling performance in individuals, which in turn places demands on leadership. It must be clear what is expected and what the goals are. HR also plays an important role here and they too need to step forward.
Finally, for those interested in transforming, where do you start?
You can start by eliminating your budget process. It’s very concrete and becomes very tangible and is something that permeates the entire organization. Because when you let go of the budget process, you open up to the fact that you need to work in a different way.
We recommend replacing it with an event-driven forecasting process. The forecast should also extend longer than the usual calendar year, at least 15-18 maybe up to 24 months. It should then roll forward, month by month. The forecast, which is advanced calculated, provides suggestions that the organization corrects against reality. This is really turning things around and having a completely different mindset, which really benefits the organization in an agile world.
So “kill your darlings” and start by removing the budget and budget process. There are great opportunities in that. This goes relatively quickly and doesn’t require long projects. Here, as mentioned, Implema can be involved and guide through the entire transformation process. We have extensive experience with this. We’re happy to come out and give a short presentation and tell you more if you want.
Curious to know more? Contact Ann Karblom, ann.karblom@implema.se or Daniel Falk, daniel.falk@implema.se
