A Field Guide to the Agile Company-A Kapta E-Book

A Field Guide to the Agile Company

It was six o’clock on Friday evening and Charlie wanted to go home. It had been a long week. Make that

a long year. As the owner and CEO of his marketing company, he was responsible for the growth of his

organization and the performance of his two hundred employees. It was a position that he enjoyed and

gave him pride. The firm had done very well since he had founded it fifteen years ago, back in the days

when the Internet was more of a curiosity than a transforming force. Through the years he and his growing

sta! had built the company, expanded their client list, created new operating divisions, penetrated new

markets, and made a name for themselves.

And yet at the beginning of a beautiful summer weekend, Charlie was behind his desk staring at a mountain

of paper. Reports, files, project schedules, forms – the documents seemed endless. When he looked at his

computer, with its jumble of files, his confusion only intensified. The contents of these files might have been

of only passing interest and their review easily put o! until Monday, except for one unpleasant fact: Charlie’s

company was facing its fourth straight quarter of losses.

He could not blame the recession. It wasn’t for lack of potential accounts. His employees seemed to be

trying their best.

No, the problem was the worst kind.

It was undefinable.

After swallowing another antacid, Charlie shu"ed through the stacks of papers. Somewhere, he knew there

was a report from the internet a#liates team. How were they doing on the new client acquisition e!ort?

And then, there was an update from the electronic media division. Was the big, new client on board?

Charlie’s attention wandered to the question of his vice president, who had just announced that she was

leaving. Had the headhunter been contacted by human resources?

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Charlie’s company was facing its fourth straight quarter of losses.

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While scanning his files Charlie came upon an ebook that a colleague had sent him. The file was called “A Field Guide to the Agile Company.”

The title of the ebook made him pause. He sat back in his chair.

“Agile,” thought Charlie. “That’s the last thing we are. I’d say we’re stuck in the mire. Up to our necks in

quicksand. Like a dinosaur trapped in the tar pits. Agile, we’re not. An ironic situation for a cutting-edge

marketing company.”

The problem, he realized, was that his company had gotten out of control. Not in the sense that, as the

owner and CEO, Charlie wanted to micromanage everything. Far from it! He would prefer to manage

less, not more. No, the problem was that his company had become a many-headed hydra, and none of

the heads knew what the others were doing. The hydra monster

was incapable of making a quick and unified response to either an

environmental change or an initiative from within.

Take the case of the Star Sales customer account. What should

have been a jewel in the company’s crown had quickly lost its

luster, and they were lucky that Star hadn’t bailed on them. The

goal seemed simple enough: position Star Sales as the premium

purveyor of consumer electronics in the college market. Young

people are first adapters, and will happily spend their cash on

new cell phones and sound systems. They quickly form brand

allegiances. They will stand in line in a hurricane to get the coolest

new gadget. But young people are nothing if not agile. The

competition for the college dollar is relentless, and one false move

can get you branded as yesterday’s news.

The hydra monster was incapable of making a quick DQG�XQLëHG�response...






Star Sales depended on Charlie’s company to stay on top of trends in order to

reach and hold this coveted market.

But that wasn’t happening. The MP3 player rollout had been a disaster, and Star’s

market share was stagnant. The attitude of Star’s execs towards Charlie was

becoming increasingly cool. Charlie had to come up with some answers fast.

He had tried to stay on top of the Star account. At the weekly managers’ meetings,

Charlie had demanded accurate reports and accountability. But all he got was

old data and finger-pointing. The website design guys blamed the art department

for being late. A key member of the media team was out on maternity leave and

no one had bothered to apportion her portfolio among other members of her sta!. Two managers in

accounting disagreed over the company’s health care cost projections, so the issue kept getting kicked

down the road. The I.T. people insisted that the chronic network connectivity problems were the fault of the

national provider and they couldn’t do anything about it.

It seemed to Charlie that instead of being ahead of the curve, he was the last guy to know what was going

on in his own company. His clients, including Star, didn’t give a whit about his problems. They paid their

fees and they wanted results, not excuses.

Charlie closed the door to his o#ce and opened “A Field Guide to the Agile Company.” What he read

came as a revelation.

It seemed to Charlie that instead of being ahead of the curve, he was the last guy to know what was going on in his own company.






Recognize the Problem

Charlie learned that you cannot hope to improve a bad situation until you first recognize the problem. And

you cannot a!ord – as Charlie did – to let four quarters of mediocrity slip by before you wake up.

The opposite of “agile” is “rigid.” Like with the joints and muscles of humans, the onset of rigidity can

happen without warning. It starts deep within the organism and may not manifest itself for months or even

years. Over time, as people learn that mistakes are tolerated, ine#ciencies accepted, missed deadlines

overlooked, and changes ignored, fatal rigidity grows and consumes more and more of the organization.

Even the best employees can be lulled into believing that the status quo is the way things should be done.

To a company in the cold grip of rigidity, it seems better to earn one dollar that’s guaranteed than to try to

earn two dollars that carries even a small risk. Stasis becomes the highest value. Exterior threats are better

ignored than confronted. What customers wanted last year is what they will want next year.

What are the signs of rigidity? Here are the key indicators:

If you think that it’s the CEO’s job to formulate policy

and pass orders down the chain of command the same

way the military operates, think again. A key element of Toyota’s takeover of the global auto market

was the company’s solicitation of ideas and input from the front lines: the workers on the assembly

lines, the engineers, the salespeople. In today’s complex and fast-moving business environment, no

CEO can a!ord to live in an ivory tower, and no CEO can a!ord to ignore the experiences and ideas

of the people on the front lines. By cutting yourself o! from the employees in the trenches, you

deprive yourself and your company of consumer feedback, new trends at the street level, and ideas

formulated by your sta! that can bring real value to the company.

Top-down management structure






There is a huge di!erence between a company’s traditions

and its values. A five-star hotel may strive to o!er only the

finest in personal service to its upscale guests. That’s a company value that is deeply connected to

its brand. But if that same hotel refuses to put free wi-fi in each room because “that’s just not what

we do,” it’s digging its own grave. Superb customer service is an unchanging value, but that means

that you must make an e!ort to learn what your customers want and then provide it for them. This

attitude must inform the actions of every employee – at a hotel, that would include everyone from the

chambermaids and parking attendants to the CEO.

Most companies have more than one department, and big

companies may have multiple divisions, each with dozens of

departments and hundreds of project teams. When rigidity sets in over time, teams and departments

become isolated. They exist in silos, separated from their neighbors. A project that requires the

coordinated e!orts of multiple teams may su!er from delays and cost overruns because the teams

aren’t communicating and aren’t being held to the same performance standards. A project that is

critical to one team may be on the back burner for another. A delay experienced by one team – and

not corrected by swift action from upper management – can create frustration and anxiety across the

organization.

Founded in 1602, the Dutch East India Company grew to

become the world’s first multinational global corporation, with

commercial activities throughout Europe and Asia Pacific. In those days, the fastest way to get news

from Asia to the Netherlands was by ship. An event that took place in Japan would be reported six

months later by a sailing vessel docking in Amsterdam. For real-time business information, this was

as fast as you could hope for!

Blind adherence to tradition

Misalignment of e!ort

Fuzzy and late information






Times have changed. If your desk is piled high with paper reports carrying yesterday’s date, you’re

dealing with old information. If you have weekly sta! meetings where department managers dutifully

update you on their activities, you’re getting an old picture. If you need a committee to study a

problem for a month before making a recommendation, it’s likely that your competitors have already

begun a new initiative that will attack your market share. Slow communication fosters rigidity.

Why do employees defend their turf? Because they’re afraid. They’re

afraid of not getting credit. They’re afraid of becoming identified with a risky

idea that could fail. They’re afraid to risk their comfortable position. In any growing company, every

individual employee and manager needs to know exactly what they’re responsible for. This is called

accountability, and every organization needs it, but it must be flexible enough to allow for innovation.

It’s the job of the CEO to hire people who are smart and confident, and then let them shine. They

need to know that as long as the company thrives, they won’t get screwed by upper management.

It’s a team e!ort, and this must not be merely an empty slogan but a day-to-day reality that is backed

up by the full faith of the organization.

Characteristics of the Agile Organization

Knowing how to recognize a rigid organization is the first step. The next steps are to understand the

characteristics of the agile organization, and how to make the changes necessary to become one.

An agile organization is simply an entity – any entity – that behaves as a singular individual rather than as

a collection of parts. An agile organization is one that collects information, processes that information, and

then responds with no time wasted.

Turf tension






Consider an example that nearly everyone can identify with: the pro football quarterback (choose your

personal favorite). The NFL quarterback has many responsibilities and can execute many plays, but the one

with the highest stakes is the forward pass. When attempting a forward pass, from the moment the ball is

snapped, the job of the quarterback includes:

1. Hurry back to a safe position away from the line of scrimmage.

2. Scan the field for your receivers. Chances are you have two or three receivers heading down field

simultaneously.

3. Monitor the progress of the attacking defensive linemen. These are huge men who, given enough

time (about three or four seconds is all they need to break through your o!ensive line), will slam

into you with enough force to cause serious personal injury.

4. See which receiver is in the clear. This may not be obvious. You have to know where your

receivers are going to be when the ball reaches them, which on a long pass can be up to one

second from now.

5. If necessary, dodge and weave away from the attacking defensive linemen and get to a safe spot.

6. Throw the football ahead of the chosen receiver.

7. Have faith that the gigantic defenseman running toward you will choose to avoid a penalty and not

flatten you after you’ve released the ball.

8. Option: If after a few seconds have elapsed and you both A) see no open receivers and B) see an

opening in the line, you can elect to run the ball yourself.






If there is one quality that a pro quarterback needs, it’s extreme physical and mental agility. These seven or

eight steps take place within a period of less than five seconds. Within this short timeframe, the quarterback

needs to do exactly what you do on a daily, weekly, and quarterly basis: take advantage of opportunities,

assess internal strengths and weaknesses, and respond to external threats.

Another key to agility – and success on the playing field – are the contributions of the other ten players

on the field. No quarterback can do it alone. The success of each individual play, repeated over and over

again over the duration of the game, depends upon the seamless interaction between the players. This

seamless interaction extends to the coaching sta! on the sidelines and right up into the owner’s box. A

business, no matter how large, is no di!erent.

As the play unfolds, with split-second timing, every member of the team must both have a clear idea of the

mechanics of the play (where to run, whom to block) and respond instantly to real-time information (the

movement of all of the players on the field).

Many concepts of agile management apply during the kinetic action of a football play, but perhaps the

most salient one is the necessity to react quickly to real-time data and information. Information about

changing conditions must be both accurate and actionable. If the primary receiver can’t get open, then the

quarterback must shift his assets – his forward pass – to the receiver who is open. If no one is open, there

must be a default choice to either create a new initiative (run the ball) or protect the team’s field position

(throw the ball out of bounds). Business is no di!erent. If you own a pizza company and you introduce

a new pizza topping and sales are dismal, you need to figure out the problem and fix it quickly. This will

require input from everyone from the kitchen sta! to your marketing team.






It may go without saying that, as a general

rule, the larger the organization the more e!ort

needs to be put into achieving a state of agility.

But even with thousands of employees, the key

is to start local – at the individual level.

Every employee, from the boardroom to the

mailroom, needs to feel valued, empowered,

and that his or her performance makes a

di!erence. These agile employees will then

populate agile teams, which in turn will create

agile departments and then divisions.

At its most fundamental level, all business

consists of individual person-to-person

interactions, taking place one at time, over and

over again. If each and every interaction is

agile, then the organization itself will become a

unified living organism, capable of both quick

response and directed action.





About Kapta Kapta provides executives with a cloud-based system to clearly

communicate company goals, track every employee’s expected contribution and review over-

all status through a real-time dashboard. Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, and founded in

2011, Kapta gives executives a clear line of sight into each team member’s performance and the

system’s easy-to-use alignment tools keep employees on track in less than five minutes each week.

Kapta’s intuitive input process virtually eliminates “work about work” and instead provides employee

alignment and executive feedback to successfully scale your business.

For more information, please visit

kaptasystems.com



