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PMI 2017 Thought Leadership Series: The C-Suite Perspective

Bruce Rogers, Chief Insights Officer

Forbes Insights

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PMI 2017 Thought Leadership Series:

The C-Suite Perspective

Bruce Rogers

Chief Insights Officer and

Head of the CMO Practice

Forbes Media

@Brogers825

Putting the C-Suite to the Test

Hypothesis: In an era of digital disruption, the C-suite needs to fully

leverage their PMO and foster a culture that supports agility. Doing so will

allow them to rapidly transform their business and operate at digital speed.

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The CEO of every established company, anywhere in the world, wakes up in the

morning worrying about who’s going to disrupt his or her whole business.”

– Duncan Tait, Corporate Executive Officer, Fujitsu

Who We Surveyed

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Top Industries:

Technology Manufacturing Banking Consumer & Retail Energy

The Good News

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believe that organizational

agility, or the ability to

rapidly respond to market

conditions and external

factors, is critical to

business success

92%report that proficiency

in agility is most

important for the

implementation of

strategic initiatives

82%agree organizational

agility is necessary

to succeed in digital

transformation

84%

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Case in

point:

• Last year, Walmart rolled out its in-

house mobile payment service,

Walmart Pay, across 4,600 stores

nationwide in just two months—

a feat of both agile software

development and deployment.

• Within months of its launch,

Walmart Pay ranked as the third

most used mobile wallet after

Samsung Pay and Apple Pay,

according to Pymnts.com.

WALMART

The Bad News

So what is agility and why is it important?

By introducing flexibility and adaptability

enterprise-wide, organizations can:

• Respond faster to fluctuating market conditions

• Improve overall organizational efficiency

• Enhance customer satisfaction

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Only

of executives consider themselves

highly agile

27%

The Business Advantages of Agility

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of respondents

say profits and/or

revenue has

improved

because of agility

41%credit agility with

their ability to be

faster to market

50%Say it has helped

with responding to

and meeting

customer/consumer

expectations

47%Of organizations that

characterize themselves

as highly agile have

increased EBITDA by

20% or more

31%

Case in

point:

• 82-year-old Japanese company.

• Successfully transforming from a

telecommunications hardware

manufacturer into an innovative

connective services provider.

• Investing more than $2 billion a

year in artificial intelligence, the

Internet of Things, cybersecurity,

and cloud computing.

• Driving force behind Fujitsu’s

transformation is organizational agility.

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FUIJITSU

Impediments to Agility: A Lack of Capabilities

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To what extent does your company’s current culture

inhibit or enable organizational agility?

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Impediments to Agility: Culture

3 Steps to Cultural Transformation

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1. People Management:

To drive adoption of

agile practices, executives

must communicate with

employees, exhibit patience,

and address employee fears

head on.

2. Procedural overhaul:

Becoming more agile

requires changing

standard procedures,

such as legal and

commercial processes.

3. A new mindset:

Employees must abandon

hierarchical thinking and

embrace common

ownership of smaller and

more nimble projects.

CEO Commitment is Key

Leaders can promote agility by:

• Hosting educational initiatives

• Offering training

• Setting an example

• Championing the role of the PMO as

a catalyst for agile transformation

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of respondents cite the CEO as the

person most responsible for agility

86%

5 Types of C-Suite Leaders

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The

Evangelist

1The

Auditor

2The Change

Management

Chief

3The Role

Model

4The PMO

Promoter

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The

Evangelist• Publicly champions the

advantages of agility through

awareness initiatives, training,

and education.

• Provides employees with the tools

and abilities to perform tasks in an

agile manner.

• Evangelizes the mindset change

required for digital transformation.

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1

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The

Auditor

• Accepts the risks inherent in

agility, such as an idea that

doesn’t pan out or a product

that never makes it to market.

• Manages risks on behalf

of a workforce.

• Ensures an appropriate level

of governance and oversight

from senior leaders so that

companies can innovate quickly

while minimizing risks.

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The Change

Management

Chief

• Encourages employees to embrace

agility as an opportunity for innovation

rather than risk.

• Knows how to communicate

clearly with employees, particularly

if they’re struggling to accept

new responsibilities.

• Offers coaching on practices

such as agile software

development methodologies.

• Finds less iterative business

units for under-performers.

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The

Role Model • Not only talks about what should be

changed in the organization but

how leaders can start the change

by themselves.

• Demonstrates his or her own ability

to be flexible, learn from mistakes,

and tackle risk head on.

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Case in

point:

• Bosch is committed to fostering agility

by demonstrating through leadership.

• Bosch hosts leadership programs,

training workshops, and town hall

meetings where speakers encourage

leaders to be a role model.

• “We not only talk about what should

be changed in the organization, but

how leaders can start that change by

themselves.” – Felix Hieronymi, Corporate

Project Leader, Agile Transformation, Bosch

BOSCH

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The PMO

Promoter

• Believes that it takes more than the

CEO to keep a company agile and

be enthusiastic about agility.

• Recognizes the strategic role and

untapped potential of the PMO.

• Provides the PMO with the time,

resources, and attention needed to

support efforts to bring about agile

transformation.

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Agility: Who’s Responsible? Who’s Enthusiastic?

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Danger: The Underutilized PMO

Which of the following departments or entities does your

organization utilize in some centralized fashion to support project

management for the implementation of strategic initiatives?

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7 Reasons Why You Need Your PMO

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Uniquely positioned

to rally employees

1Drives greater

adoption of fast-fail

strategies

2Builds small and

nimble teams

3Assigns

accountability

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Encourages a

more flexible

culture of PM

5Reinvents PM

teams and

methodologies

6Strives for better

business outcomes

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The PMO Impact

How do you see the role/practice of the PMO/PM as a driver of

strategic change evolving over the next 3 to 5 years?

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An Action Plan for Leaders

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Step 1:

Encourage C-level executives

to play a key role in

evangelizing agility and

communicating its business

value throughout the

organization. Focus on

deliverables such as revenue

growth, speed-to-market, and

customer satisfaction.

Step 2:

Recognize that all project

management methodologies—

predictive, agile, hybrid—can

support agility and an

organization’s need to produce

better results faster.

An Action Plan for Leaders

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Step 3:

Equip employees with the

capabilities to quickly

adopt and implement new

strategies through

training, education, and

technology tools.

Step 4:

Fully utilize the PMO to shape

and influence an agile-friendly

culture and hold up the PMO

as a beacon for other

operational and functional

areas that would be impacted

by new approaches to

managing projects.

Step 5:

Address the cultural factors

that enable greater agility

and help drive strategic

initiatives to successful

realization. Key pillars

include people management,

procedural overhaul, and a

new mindset.

To learn more

visit forbes.com/

forbesinsights

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