May 19, 2020
Using agile to navigate from crisis to sustained success — ADAPTOVATE
Authored by Evan Jago, Principal, ADAPTOVATE
COVID-19 has disrupted business to its core.
Increasingly, teams are looking to approaches that allow for the ability to rapidly respond and adapt in order to survive and thrive .
We used agile processes and principles to drive break even within two months
As an example, we applied agile principles to business turnaround:
It was 2002 and a colleague and I had been parachuted into a warehousing and transport business that was making a multi-million-dollar loss and we had been told to “turn the business around or shut it down”.
We used agile processes and principles to drive break even within two months of the start of the turn-around , earn profi t within twelve months with the business continuing to operate and over one hundred people employed.
- to rapidly iterate On our first day, we spoke to staff , prior management and observed operations. This rapid analysis allowed us to identify nine potential initiatives that would contribute to the bottom line , determining that that they would move us in the right direction. The approach meant we didn’t get stuck in weeks of analysis. We tried out each initiative to test how well it worked and gain ed insight into what we needed to do to make them as successful as possible. We also used test and learn to determine optimal levels of shift staffing and resourcing .
- uild a backlog We used our list of nine initiatives that would move us in the right direction and prioritised th em for highest dollar impact a n d speed of implementation . We broke the first initiative down into actions and immediately began rolling out th ose actions to deliver ongoing results across fortnightly cycles of work which we know as sprints . We didn’t write a project plan, communications plan, or any other heavyweight project documents. Our approach led to fast, impactful results as we reduced annualised costs by over $500 K in the first and second fortnights, and by $300 K in the third fortnight for a total $1.6m reduction in six weeks.
- Regular demonstration of progress to receive timely feedback We arranged a fortnightly meeting with senior management to discuss results and ongoing plans. We used this meeting to highlight the progress and successes of the past fortnight, demonstrate the saving in the P&L and our next actions.
As a result of these techniques we had our first break-even week within two months of the start of the turn-around and consistently broke even after six months. After twelve months the business started to earn a profit , continued to operate and over one hundred people kept their jobs.
We used these practices not because they were part of a particular framework , but because they were the appropriate business practices designed to deliver measurable value as quickly as possible. These practices ar e as relevant as ever in the current climate as businesses adapt to the new normal.
Find more ADAPTOVATE perspectives at https://adaptovate.com/blog/
Originally published at https://adaptovate.com on May 19, 2020.
