Agility in world 2.0

You surely get a kick when a top official in your company endorses your idea. I had one today when our CTO said that the only way a company could survive and innovate constantly in this ever changing world of requirements is by being agile.

Globalization, OpenSource and Web2.0 have had a telling effect on the existing "internet" corporate world by having shrunk boundaries between continents and eliminating barriers for entry.

Survival tactics earlier are no longer valid now as the dynamics are totally different currently. So, how does a company face all these challenges .. how does it grow? The mantra for success is probably a little different for small companies and large companies, but what is common is that they all have to be agile within and outside the company.

Small companies should be agile in terms of assessing the market, carving out a niche for themselves and looking out for potential acquisitions..Sometimes, you could model your company "suitable" for acquisitions. Large companies should invest a lot in R&D, assess competitors and do acquisitions that would give them an edge over their competitors. Companies just cannot wait any longer as competition can lure your customers with more and more ease every passing day. I have seen that happening here in Sabre (we have been on an acquisition spree lately) and other big internet firms like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. Time was precious, but now it is no longer available!

Showing agility in acquisition, assessing market needs, creating markets is surely important, but so is showing agility in our processes within. At the end of the day, even after making all those acquisitions, or for small companies that are building something, products have to see the light at the end of the tunnel and they have to come out in perfect shape. Mistakes are very costly as there is no time to recover. Whatever comes out of the company should come out very fast and should be flawless. An Agile driven development methodology can do exactly that. Development in iterations with constant correction cycles to meet the needs of a customer will bring out the perfect product. Stress should be more on how the product is being developed rather than what technologies it is using to develop it...and that could very well be the reason why in the last few years, there have been no breakthroughs in IT, but a lot has been done to make processes better!!!