Whitepaper

BIRGIT NEITZERT

In the traditional multi or full-range retail sector, the market and margins have been under tremendous pressure for many years. A number of long-standing retailers—such as Schlecker, Quelle, Neckermann, and Praktiker—have vanished from the market. To remain in the game, both large chains and small retailers have expanded their store-based operations to include online stores and new delivery and payment services. This was crucial to survival during the pandemic, although it did not solve the dilemma of ever decreasing margins and simultaneously increasing inventory risk.

In fact, what retail companies need to do is fundamentally transform their business models, structures, and processes. These need to be flexible enough to respond to constant change. In this whitepaper, you will learn about the trends that are putting pressure on retailers and how you can come up with customized, fit-for-purpose solutions.

LENA JEßEN and CHRISTOPH SCHMIEDINGER

“How will we benefit from it?” This question is not only legitimate—it is also the one truly important question to ask before a company embarks on an agile transformation. However, the more challenging the economic environment, the more tempting it is to look at such an investment in the future viability of an organization solely from a cost perspective. This leads to people leaving everything as it is—a decision that can sometimes be disastrous.

From our perspective, it is more effective to adopt a balanced approach. Yes, the transformation generates short-term costs. However, it also results in quick wins and, more importantly: it paves the way for long-term success by keeping customers satisfied and ensuring the company’s strong position in the market.

We would like to indicate which topics you might consider in your cost/benefit analysis. Two practical examples clearly demonstrate that investing in an agile transformation can pay off after a fairly short period of time.

LENA JESSEN AND CHRISTOPH SCHMIEDINGER

Over the past few years, the German automotive industry has been hit by blow after blow: competition from entirely different sectors, production under pandemic-induced conditions, supply chains torn apart, and customers being mindful of sustainability hit the sector in quick succession. Reacting to these external factors would be much easier, however, if the German economy’s figurehead did not cling to past successes and ancient structures.

This whitepaper provides reflections on holistically transforming companies in the German automotive sector.

Elisabeth Petracs

Ideally, an agile company always has the right knowledge and the necessary skills at its disposal at the right time so it can react swiftly to the market. This is why an organization’s knowledge pool needs to develop in a similarly dynamic way to its environment.

Just like with agile ways of working, agile learning is about dealing with complex requirements through teamwork. This whitepaper provides leaders, staff development professionals, agile coaches, and anyone who wants to implement agile learning within their organization, with information on how to create an environment that enables all those actively learning to reach their individual learning objectives that are in line with the organization’s goals.

Damla Nalbant

As an agile company, borisgloger consulting GmbH tried to find a salary process that is compliant with legal requirements, but also meets the criteria of agile performance management: in a participatory and iterative process, the employees should decide on their salaries themselves. The considerations of this process led to the “salary guild” which has been in place for five years, having replaced the traditional, annual, individual salary reviews.

In this whitepaper, you will find out how this model works and what you should consider if you want to implement a similar model.

Stefan nagel

There have never been as many individual living situations in our society as there are today. Such a colorful mix does, however, result in a variety of requirements in terms of insurance products.

In this whitepaper, you will read about ecosystems in the insurance sector, how microenterprises can support these networks, and how microenterprises can be set up.

Ssonja Peter

Transforming a traditional company into a modern, resilient, and adaptable organization is not simply a question of introducing so-called “agile” methods. Task boards and daily scrums will not make a company more successful in the long term as long as the underlying traditional mindsets, whereby instructions are given and followed, remain unchanged. For a company to become sustainably successful, it needs to both permit and encourage employees to think and act in an entrepreneurial manner. If everyone puts the same level of commitment into their business units as they would into their own company, they become intrapreneurs—intra-corporate entrepreneurs. This means that they make decisions autonomously, assume responsibility, take risks, and make plans for the future. As such, they sustainably transform the organization from within.

Christoph Schmiedinger

The 2018 financial crisis as well as increasing pressure caused by digitalization and new types of financial services have forced banks to revisit their strategies and business models. This is why, over the past few years, many institutes have started comprehensive agile transformation programs—in parallel and/or as an addition to their digitalization initiatives. These transformations have already reached an advanced stage and, judging by their business reports, paid off. However, the wave of agility in the banking sector has not yet reached its peak; on the contrary: we have observed new, more radical forms of change that do not only affect the banks’ IT, but also units such as risk management, audit, and sales. Furthermore, modern management instruments such as objectives & key results and Obeya rooms have found their way into performance and portfolio management. This whitepaper will provide information on trends and current developments in the field of agile banking.

Carsten Rasche AND Christoph Schmiedinger

Organizations usually gain their first experience with agile ways of working at the team level: either through the impetus of individual teams that want to try out a new way of working or through officially (top-down) created agile pilot teams. The initial phase is often ambivalent: The euphoria of the proponents is pitted against the concerns of the skeptics – and that is precisely why the learning curve is very steep. Everyone concerned and, not least, management gain a sense of the benefits, but also of the challenges associated with cross-functional teams, short development cycles, flat hierarchies and self-organization. However, organizations cannot operate with isolated pilot teams forever, as this would give rise to too much friction with other areas.

STEFAN NAGEL

Customers’ calls for adaptive insurance models and digital services are getting louder. “Usage-based insurance” reveals the underlying idea: why pay for flat-rate risk coverage if my individual risk is measurably lower? This development is enhanced by the Internet of Things. However, it presents insurance companies with their biggest hurdle yet: they need to become technology companies that keep their finger on the pulse.

Carsten Rasche AND Lucia Stiglmaier

Agility in a company isn’t only about how products are developed. Instead, agility is predominantly about how employees communicate with each other across all hierarchies, and how they contribute to the organization’s processes. The traditional annual employee performance review is one
of the most important tools when it comes to defining one’s own targets and bringing them in line with the organization’s objectives. Previously, employees were little more than recipients of imposed targets and merely gave their consent—maybe suggesting a few small amendments. Agile employee performance reviews are significantly different, both with regard to who conducts them and how they are carried out.
This whitepaper shows you how an agile employee performance review can be carried out and provides a simple tool which individuals can use to prepare for the review.

CARSTEN RASCHE

This whitepaper delves deeper into the term “agile mindset” and asks the question: “How can you tell if people and teams already have an agile mindset, or if they are at least working towards it?” To help with this, practical methods that support an agile mindset will be presented.

Christoph Schmiedinger

“We want to convert to the Spotify Model” – this is a request we have received many times in the last two years. The Swedish music-streaming platform is the epitome of a new, agile company. Even though Spotify only started turning a profit in 2018, their structural setup from 2012 seems to answer the question from companies across the world about how to build an agile organization.

Sabina Lammert

A jolt is going through the German corporate landscape. Whether automotive, banking or mechanical engineering: companies in all industries are undergoing the transformation to an “agile organization” – at least they are trying to meet customer needs faster and with higher quality through agile product development. The first ripples are also being felt in the pharmaceutical industry: corporations are affording themselves generously equipped innovation centers where the future of the company can be rethought in an unconventional way under the auspices of digitization. What is taken for granted there: agile working.

Christoph Schmiedinger

Today, turning a company into an agile organization is a stated goal at many upper management levels. There is not, however, a single correct way to achieve this goal. The “why” for an agile transformation should first be clarified and then an appropriate strategy be designed. These strategies can be essentially summarized into three approaches: Lighthouse project, spin-off and radical transformation. In this whitepaper, you will learn what is involved with each approach and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Christoph Schmiedinger

Digitisation has now gained ground in even the most conservative sectors. Today, the question is no longer whether there will be changes, but what the scope of these changes will be. Anyone wishing to be among the winners of digitisation must act – but how best to deal with it?

One successful way is bundling digital initiatives in separate units largely independent of the parent organization…

Engineering expertise is the export hit of German, Swiss and Austrian enterprises. Development-intensive branches such as mechanical engineering, the automotive industry, medical technology and electrical engineering are key mainstays of the economy across Europe. However, global competition is catching up: shorter innovation cycles are called for, development projects must be completed faster, more economically, but nevertheless, in the same high quality. Agile management…

An ERP system is no less than the backbone of a company. As a reflection of current business processes it is intended to support work flows and help keep them efficient. Seen from a functional point of view ERP systems offer countless possibilities. But it is also a fact that they rank among the most sluggish and, at the same time, most cost-intensive architectures in the IT landscape of a company. Should a company wish or have to adapt to changes on the market, the highly branched ERP giants…

Medical technology has never lacked revolutionary ideas. Yet, cost pressure and new international competitors in the healthcare sector make shorter development cycles inevitable, even for this highly innovative industry. Many companies have to ask themselves, how, under current regulatory frameworks, product development can be faster, less cost intensive while still providing premium quality products? …

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