Enterprise Business Agility has become a buzzword in leadership circles, promising faster delivery, greater innovation, and increased customer satisfaction. Yet, many organizations remain stuck, unable to realize its full potential. Why?
Despite significant investment in training, frameworks, and tools, systemic barriers continue to derail progress. Let’s see what the systemic barriers and root causes are, then identify what are the possible solutions to address.
Insights from the 17th Annual State of Agile Report (SAR), Business Agility Report 2024 (BAI), Skills in the New World of Work (SWW), and State of Agility in Procurement & Supply 2024 (PRC) reveal troubling trends which limits, if not inhibit enterprise agility:
- Strategy-execution disconnection.
- Legacy systems force large organizations into hybrid models.
- Wrong value measurement.
- Lack of agile contract expertise limits ability to build adaptive ecosystems.
Systemic Barriers to Enterprise Business Agility
We identified 5 main barriers to Enterprise Business Agility.
Strategy-Execution Disconnect
A staggering 28% of organizations lack clear priorities or direction, while only 32% use OKRs linked to epics, leaving teams without alignment to strategic objectives (SAR). This disconnect creates fragmentation, wasted effort, and missed opportunities to deliver real value.
Poor Value Measurement
Organizations often measure agility through output-focused metrics like velocity and burn-down charts, which fail to capture customer impact. Only 29% of teams measure value delivered, and this misalignment hinders organizations from demonstrating the business value of agility (SAR).
Legacy Systems and Hybrid Models
Legacy systems drive 46% of dissatisfaction with agile practices. These systems force organizations into hybrid approaches, where traditional and agile models coexist. This results in inconsistent workflows, heavy inter-dependencies and increased technical debt, particularly for 49% of large companies (SAR).
Business Resistance and Cultural Mismatch
Agility isn’t just for technical teams—it requires cultural buy-in from business leaders. Yet, 37% of business teams do not understand agile. This resistance slows adoption and complicates even more the divide between technical and business teams (SAR).
Limited Scalability and Lack of Trust
While 57% agree that agile contracts lead to better business outcomes, only 17% feel confident managing them, and a mere 3% update contracts monthly, preventing organizations from building adaptive, multi-partner ecosystems (PRC).
Root Causes
If we have a look at what root causes can hide behind those barriers, we identified the following:
- Misaligned Leadership and Strategy: Leaders often lack the tools to connect strategic goals with execution, leaving teams without clarity or focus.
- Technical Debt: Legacy systems create inefficiencies that prevent seamless and full agile adoption.
- Inadequate Metrics: A focus on output over outcomes leads to superficial and unproven measures of success.
- Contractual Inflexibility: Organizations lack the expertise to implement agile contracts that enable adaptation and collaboration.
- Cultural Resistance: Business teams see agility as a technical endeavor, leading to siloed adoption.
Strategic Solutions
Breaking the barriers to enterprise agility demands a comprehensive approach that not only addresses immediate challenges but also lays a foundation for long-term adaptability and growth.
It starts with aligning strategy and execution.
Tools like OKRs are critical here—not just as a management buzzword but as a way to ensure that all team’s activities tie directly to overarching business goals. This alignment brings clarity and purpose, helping teams prioritize the initiatives that create the most value. Coupled with Lean Portfolio Management, leaders can take a dynamic approach to resource allocation, focusing investments on the projects and ideas that deliver the highest returns.
Equally important is a shift in how success is measured.
Too many organizations rely on output-oriented metrics like velocity or burn-down charts, which tell us how fast teams are moving but not whether they’re moving in the right direction. Instead, metrics should focus on outcomes (e.g. customer satisfaction, value delivered, time-to-value). This shift from “how much” to “how meaningful” helps foster a value-driven mindset across teams.
Addressing legacy systems is another essential step.
Outdated technology is more than a nuisance; it actively holds back agility by forcing hybrid models and creating inefficiencies. Modernizing these systems through scalable, modular architectures can reduce technical debt and support faster, more seamless workflows.
Organizations should also embrace DevOps practices to streamline processes further, enabling teams to deliver continuously and confidently.
Of course, technology alone cannot solve cultural challenges.
Business leaders must actively participate in the agile journey, not just as sponsors but as collaborators. This requires education—helping business teams understand that agility isn’t just a framework for IT but a mindset that can unlock better decision-making and faster value delivery. Shared accountability between business and technical teams is key here. When everyone takes ownership of the outcomes, agility can move from isolated pockets to a truly enterprise-wide capability.
Finally, organizations need to rethink how they manage external partnerships.
Agile contracts offer a way to create adaptive, dynamic relationships, but their potential is often unrealized.
This begins with training procurement and legal teams to understand and manage agile contracts effectively. Contracts should be treated as living documents, updated regularly to reflect evolving priorities and market conditions.
As Ugur Sahin, BioNtech CEO, said: “When the need is urgent like when the world needs a new vaccine, there’s no time for contracts.” The alliance between big giant pharmaceutical companies was founded on ‘trust-based collaboration’ – a strong focus on shared governance and open, honest communication.
In an environment of extreme uncertainty, establishing a formal contract may either take too long or even be impossible to achieve. Therefore, establishing an adaptive governance framework that draws on agile principles is an intelligent way to ensure control, manage risk and create certainty. These ‘trust-based collaborations’, or ‘Adaptive Partner Ecosystems’ are much more flexible and resilient as current supply chains and are being increasingly applied along the entire value stream (PRC).
Conclusion
Reaching Enterprise Business Agility requires organizations to confront systemic barriers with honesty and determination. By addressing the root causes—misalignment, resistance, technical debt, poor metrics, and inflexible contracts—leaders can create an environment where agility thrives.
Now is the time for action. Reflect on your organization:
- Are your strategy and execution aligned?
- Are your metrics measuring value or just activity?
- Have you modernized your systems and embraced cultural change?
- Do your contracts allow for the right flexibility to tackle today’s challenges?
The first step toward breaking these barriers lies in asking these questions and committing to change.
Leadership is not about waiting for the perfect moment—it’s about creating it. Take the first step today, and lead your organization toward true enterprise agility.
(Sources: Business Agility Report 2024, Skills in the New World of Work, 17th Annual State of Agile Report, State of Agility in Procurement & Supply 2024)
Content: Human-Generated Inputs + AI Processing
