Extending agile’s principles—and benefits—throughout an organization is both essential and challenging. Our agile-at-scale framework guides the way.
What is agile at scale? Agile at scale is a way of working—and thinking—that can take organizations from rigid to resilient. It’s more collaborative, more open, more creative, and more efficient than other models. Yet few companies have been able to implement agile across their entire enterprise.
It’s easy to see why. Similar to a digital transformation, achieving agile at scale requires companies to address their full operating model. They must embrace change. And they must support this agile transformation—completely and visibly—from the top.
It’s no simple undertaking. But now more than ever, companies need to extend agile deeper into their business and culture. They can do it with the right agile-at-scale framework.
Our agile transformation roadmap is a holistic, collaborative, and bionic approach to implementing agile at scale across an organization.
Taking agile beyond pilots and scattered initiatives requires deep changes in processes, habits, and even mindsets. It also requires careful timing and coordination. We work with clients at every step of their agile-at-scale journey.
Our agile-at-scale clients operate in nearly every industry and region. We’re able to assist such a diverse roster because of our global reach and cross-industry experience. Among our engagements: agile transformation in banking, aviation, and pharmaceuticals. As the following examples show, agile at scale isn’t just for software—or isolated pilots—anymore.
In a world where digital innovators are increasing customers' expectations, companies seeking to respond faster to changing customer requirements must work in new ways. For help in organizing around interconnected and customer-focused missions, ING Bank Netherlands partnered with BCG to adopt agile at scale based on squads, chapters, and tribes of employees to accelerate and enhance their responsiveness to clients.
Agile is still more the exception than the rule in aerospace manufacturing. But Latécoère—a French aircraft company—is a particularly notable exception. We helped it deploy agile at scale in designing and building a new aircraft door, reducing development time from the traditional four years to 18 months. In a market that requires manufacturers to deliver breakthroughs in an ever-shrinking timeframe, agile at scale provided speed and adaptability. Just as crucially, agile at scale empowered design teams—stressing autonomy over micromanagement—and reduced costs.
In just three months, the World Bank developed a flagship initiative—the Human Capital Project—that normally would have taken at least a year to launch. Agile at scale enabled a cross-functional team to work in iterative ways, quickly incorporating feedback and changes. The project—intended to accelerate investments in people for greater equity and economic growth—has inspired 77 countries to commit to creating new programs for investing in human capital. Within the World Bank, the experience—and success—has sparked a wider shift to an agile mindset. After the COVID-19 crisis hit, the organization delivered more than 100 projects in just ten weeks—work usually delivered in a one- to two-year period.
Contrary to what skeptics believe, it’s not necessary to go all in when applying agile methods. A selective approach can promote efficiency and effectiveness.
Can the two approaches help each other open up the last bastion of traditional corporate management to new ways of working?
It starts—or stops—at the top. The key to changing the way a company operates is to change the way the people in charge think, work, and lead. →
Our agile-at-scale consultants and industry experts partner with clients to rethink their operating model and culture, and embrace an agile transformation.
