If Agile only creates great workplaces for software developers, but doesn’t generate better business outcomes, its life expectancy will be short. Many organizations embraced Agile management assuming that cost reductions, time savings and quality enhancements for existing customers (i.e. operational Agility) will yield financial gains. Owing to increased competitive pressures this assumption often proves incorrect. Dramatic recent instances include Intel and GE.

Major financial gains are more likely to come from Strategic Agility, i.e. generating innovations that create entirely new markets and that turn non-customers into customers. Instead of being slightly better than everybody else in a crowded field, a firm practicing Strategic Agility creates new markets and dominates them. Profit margins are bigger, and the value to society is often larger.

The talk will cover what’s involved in achieving Strategic Agility, including a playbook for systematically generating market-creating innovations, and the necessary shift in culture that is required.

About the Speaker

Steve Denning is the author of the book, The Age of Agile: How Smart Companies Are Transforming the Way Work Gets Done. He is the former Program Director, Knowledge Management at the World Bank. Steve now works with organizations in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Australia on leadership, innovation, Agile management and organizational storytelling. His clients have included many Fortune 500 companies. He also leads the SD Learning Consortium, a group of major private sector firms that are sharing knowledge about the Agile transformation journey. You can follow Steve on Twitter at @stevedenning.