REPORT

Global business agility report:

insights and interviews
Efma & ADAPTOVATE
November 2021
Efma
A global non-profit organization,
established in 1971 by banks
and insurance companies, Efma
facilitates networking between
decision-makers. It provides
quality insights to help banks and
insurance companies make the
right decisions to foster innovation
and drive their transformation. 120
financial groups in 133 countries
are Efma members.

Headquartered in Paris. Offices in

London, Brussels, Andorra, Milan,
Stockholm, Bratislava, Warsaw,
Moscow, Istanbul, Beirut, Dubai,
Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney and
Montreal.

Learn more at efma.com

Authors:
Allen Levovski
&
Sławomir Kozioł
ADAPTOVATE

Executive editor:
Boris Plantier
Strategic content manager
Efma
boris@efma.com

Production team:
Kevin Spangenberg
Efma copywriter
&
Rizwan Pasha
Graphic designer
Efma

Images from www.gettyimages.com

Foreword
Financial institutions are constantly in search of speed, adaptation, and customer engagement. In an
industry that must respond to changing customer behaviors, those characteristics – speed to market,
the ability to adapt, and a deep understanding of the customer – are what separates the best from
the rest.

The means to embody those elements in day-to-day business is through Agile ways of working. We
have many Efma members who have implemented Agile and realize the benefits of these new ways
of working on a daily basis. These institutions are failing fast, learning fast, and adapting to the
market with a purpose. In today’s COVID and, hopefully, post-COVID world this has only risen in
importance.

Efma’s mission is to share knowledge. That is why we, along with our partner ADAPTOVATE, wanted
to dive deeper on this subject. We surveyed and interviewed a wide range of Agile practitioners
to better understand how their Agile transformations are progressing, the primary challenges,
and finally, what Agile best practices have been integral to success. As you will see, Agile is not
uniformly implemented at every Financial Industry institution. But thanks to ADAPTOVATE’s expert
analysis, we are sure you will be better positioned to successfully implement Agile and transform the
ways of working at your organization.

Enjoy the report.

John Berry
CEO, Efma

3
 Executive summary
This report consists of three sections. Section One focuses on the stages of Agile transformation for
financial institutions worldwide and summarizes the results of our Global Business Agility Survey
to show the actual state of their Agile transformation journeys. We present and discuss five key
observations:

1. Agile organizations work with increasing levels of cross-functional teams as they

progress to higher stages of their transformations.
2. Success measures of Agile transformations include both value delivery and Agile
productivity.
3. Agile organizations work in quarterly planning and delivery cycles.
4. Organizations that are scaling Agile mostly rely on internal coaching support.
5. Most leaders in organizations at advanced stages of transformation have dedicated
Agile Coaching support.

Section Two discussed the benefits and challenges observed by the transformation leaders. While
most organizations start the journey with an expectation of increased speed to delivery, only half
of them indicated speed as the key benefit achieved. For a majority of organizations, the key
benefit to emerge is increased collaboration. Increased employee engagement is among the key
longer-term benefits, observed by organizations at more mature stages of their journey. The key
barriers indicated are linked to the change management aspects of the journey (such as lack of
understanding or belief in the need for change or change fatigue) or insufficient leadership buy-in
and commitment which highlights critical role of leaders in the success of transformation.

Section Three discussed common transformation challenges grouped into four key topics:

1. Key Agile roles and cross-functional teams

2. Coaching support – Coaching teams to maturity & Agile Center of Expertise
3. Leadership behaviors
4. Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) and Quarterly Delivery Cycle (QDC)

The importance of these areas is discussed in detail and solutions to common pitfalls are proposed
based on ADAPTOVATE case experience.

Methodology
Thanks to Efma’s global network of bankers and insurers, we have strong relationships with digital
and transformation managers from all around the globe. We surveyed these men and women who
are leading change efforts at their respective institutions. The survey asked a variety of questions
regarding their Agile efforts and how things were progressing. More than 50 people responded,
providing ample data from which to analyze the impact Agile is having throughout the financial
services industry.

In addition, we conducted interviews with more than a dozen managers to add more color and
insight to their survey responses. Following the analysis of the survey results, you will find links to all
of the interviews, hosted on efma.com.

4 Global business agility report: insights and interviews

Section one: various stages of agile
transformation and what they look like
in the real world
An Agile transformation is iterative. It requires an organization to test, learn, and course correct as
maturity evolves. From the initial stage of “Yet to begin any Agile transformation” to an “Agile-at-
scale model”, we identified and distinguished five stages of a typical Agile transformation, with our
survey respondents distributed across them all.

Stage 1 describes organizations that have not yet implemented Agile ways of working, though they
may be considering piloting them in various parts of the organization.

Stage 2 assumes, that initial experiences with new ways of working have already been collected,
typically in the form of one or more pilot teams used to demonstrate the value of transformation in the
specific context of the organization.

Organizations in Stage 3, have the initial pilot teams’ experiences behind them and use the
learnings from those teams to launch multiple Agile teams, however typically still within the same
department of business line (and under the same leadership sponsorship) and implementing first
elements of Agile-at-scale model that allow multiple teams to effectively collaborate and integrate the
results of their work.

Stage 4 assumes scaling of Agile ways of working to the broader organization, meaning efforts to
launch and mature Agile teams outside of the initial department or business line reducing the number
of frictions between Agile and non-Agile parts of the organization and making sure the full Agile-at-
scale model is defined and properly implemented.

Stage 5 refers to organizations already working in Agile-at-scale model, with the entire
organizations effectively using new ways of working, though some exceptions might still be possible
- like sales, service, operations, and selected support functions still not fully embracing Agile ways of
working.

Our research indicates that 66% of the respondents are currently scaling Agile to the broader
organization or already working in an Agile-at-scale model (Stages 4 & 5). Most organizations are
already moving in the direction of Business Agility - only 3% report that they have yet to trial Agile
within their organization. Five key observations emerged from our findings.

Agile transformation stage Stage definitions:

(% of respondents) Stage 1:
Yet to start / considering Agile teams
50%
Stage 2:
40% One or more pilot teams up and running (lighthouse teams)
30% Stage 3:
20% In the process of scaling Agile within the initial organization

10% Stage 4:
In the process of scaling Agile to the broader organization
0%
Stage 5:
Already working in an Agile-at-scale model

5
 Observation 1: Agile organizations work with increasing levels of cross-functional
teams as they progress to higher stages of their transformations.

Our data shows that all Agile team composition by stage

organizations scaling Agile to (% of respondents by stage)
the broader organization or
90%
already working in an Agile-at-
80%
scale model (Stages 4 & 5) have 70%
teams composed of Business and IT 60%
resources. In contrast, less than 40% 50%
of organizations at Stages 2 claim 40%
to do so. This reflects our experience 30%
20%
that Agile transformation typically
10%
starts in IT with teams composed 0%
of IT resources only and then
gradually evolves to include Product
Owners from Business (with Business Teams IT only; Business involved as stakeholder
mainly involved as stakeholders).
Then, depending on the approach Teams mostly IT; Product Owner from Business, otherwise Business
involved as stakeholder
to scaling Agile, involvement of
Business resources can evolve to be Agile teams composed of Both IT and Business resources
fully embedded in the teams. While
most organizations working in Agile-at-scale model (Stage 5) have at least Product Owners from
Business, a step towards true organization-wide Business Agility with both IT and Business resources
working on the same team for many of these organizations is a challenging one and one yet to be
made.

Branislav Jarabek, Head of Organizational Change at Slovenska Sporitelna, spoke about the
importance of getting the cross-functional mix right. “Looking back at our Agile journey, it took us a
little bit of time to learn how to manage (or better “treat”) Agile leaders, their teams, and enable the
previously mentioned synergies. As people stand at the very center of any team success, so is the
case with Agile teams. Therefore, it can be argued that it takes a little bit of elbow grease to find
the correct matches between the different product owners, scrum masters, and cross-border team
members to get the machine rolling. But once you put these missing pieces together and they fit, the
results are truly spectacular,” he said.

Observation 2: Success measures of Agile transformations include both value

delivery and Agile productivity.
Metrics measurement by stage
How do organizations measure the (% of respondents measuring by stage)
success of their Agile transformations?
Interviewees gave a wide range of 100%
responses. For some, it can be difficult 90%
80%
to quantify the benefits of Agile. For
70%
others, they have come up with some
60%
unique metrics by which they measure 50%
success, often centering around speed 40%
and completion ratio. 30%
20%
Here we differentiate between two 10%
types of metrics: business value, which 0%
is essentially aligned with financial
performance and business KPI, and
Agile productivity, which demonstrates Business value Agile productivity

6 Global business agility report: insights and interviews

how much and how often Agile teams are able to deliver value (velocity, cycle time, release
frequency).

Nearly 90% of our respondents report attempting to use business value metrics to measure
progress in early transformation stages, but, interestingly, this number decreased steadily through
more advanced stages. This may reflect the difficulty of using business value metrics at scale to
demonstrate success, as many interviewees noted, resulting in companies dropping this metric.
Another possible interpretation is that organizations that have successfully scaled Agile trust what
they see with their eyes.

Regardless, the frequency of tracking Agile productivity increased through the stages, suggesting that
as positive feedback accumulates, companies begin to understand that Agile adoption and growth in
maturity leads to improved overall performance.

Observation 3: Agile organizations work in quarterly planning and delivery cycles.

Over 80% of organizations scaling

Business Agility adopt Quarterly
QDC prevalence by stage
Delivery Cycle (QDC) and (% of respondents responding yes by stage)
Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) 120%
to align around strategic objectives
and cascade goals through the 100%
organization. We recommend 80%
caution interpreting these results,
however, since implementing a QDC 60%
is one thing and getting the benefits 40%
is another. Our experience is that
a large portion of organizations, 20%
at least initially, fail to do this
0%
successfully.

The key pitfalls lie in confusing OKRs

with MbOs and KPIs in traditional ways of working. OKRs should be ambitious and stretch targets;
typically with 70% overall achievement indicating a strong performance. OKRs are not an individual
performance evaluation tool but rather a way to understand if efforts and resources are focused on
the right business challenges in the right way. Another common pitfall in implementing QDC is lack
of open and transparent conversation on business priorities and capacity constraints, resulting in the
“old” ways of planning work and “hidden” communication layers existing in parallel to the QDC.

However, when done right, the QDC allows to effectively break down strategic goals and larger
initiatives into smaller pieces, prioritize highest value work based on available capacity and
regularly refocus the entire organization on customer needs. “By breaking down the projects into
smaller pieces, companies can promptly face the changes in customers’ needs as well as deliver
products and services in a shorter period of time rather than with predictive approaches,” said
Andrea Lecce, Executive Director Sales and Marketing Retail at Intesa Sanpaolo.

Observation 4: Organizations that are scaling Agile mostly rely on internal

coaching support.

As one transformation leader, Inga Kelauradze, Agile Transformation Lead at TBC, a European
bank, shared with us, ‘‘After finishing the design phase and starting the execution, there is a very
high risk to face chaotic reality instead of forming beautiful cross-functional teams from slides. What
helps [us] manage and improve the working process in an agile organization? Very strong internal
CoE of Agile coaches.’’

7
 However, the transformation journey Prevalence of internal coaching by stage
typically starts either without a (% of respondents by stage)
dedicated team of internal Agile
70%
Coaches or with a small group (below
60%
20% of total coaching resources). 50%
Whereas organizations already 40%
working in the Agile at Scale model 30%
mostly rely on their internal Agile 20%
10%
Coaching resources (more than 50%
0%
of total coaching resources).
Stage 2S tage 3 Stage 4S tage 5

While many organizations choose to
start the transformation with external
coaching support and gradually
recruit and develop their internal
cadre of Agile Coaches, based on
our experience, organizations that
embank on the transformation journey
without any coaching support run the risk of failure, delay, or abandonment the journey to Business
Agility altogether.
No internal coaching resources (100% external coaching support)
No more than 20% coaching resources are internal (with additional
external coaching support)
Between 20%5 0% coaching resources are internal (with additional
external coaching support)
More than 50% coaching resources are internal

The lesson here is clear: external support is helpful to kick off the journey of transformation but
to make it broadly successful and sustainable, organizations need to build internal coaching
capabilities in the form of a strong, organization wide Agile Center of Expertise (CoE).

Observation 5: Most leaders in organizations at advanced stages of transformation

have dedicated Agile coaching support.

A vast majority of our respondents
employ leadership coaching support.
This is because organizations that
attempt to scale Agile learn that they
need to change the mindsets and
Prevalence of dedicated agile leadership coaches by stage
(% of leaders with dedicated coaches by stage)
70%
60%

ways of working of their leaders 50%

so they can lead by example and
40%
champion the transformation. Only
20% of organizations report having 30%
no coaching for senior leadership 20%
even at the initial stages of an Agile
transformation. This indicates that 10%

leadership coaching, an essential tool 0%

for transforming organizational culture
and values, is now being broadly
adopted by organizations on their None Some (Less than 50%) Most (More than 50%) All (100%)

way to Business Agility.

Based on our experience Agile “starts and stops at the top” with senior sponsors being the key to
successful Agile-at-scale transformations. Leaders effectively using coaching support significantly
increase their organizations chances for success. As Stefan Davill, Operative Sponsor Agile
Transformation from SEB in Sweden put it, “The CEO is the chief scrum master of the bank” and all
new scrum masters benefit from coaches.

8 Global business agility report: insights and interviews

Section two: benefits and challenges
experienced
The results of unlocking the full potential of
Agile can be astonishing, but the journey (% of respondents)
to Business Agility can be challenging. 70%
Based on the study, we see the following as 60%
expected benefits and barriers experienced 50%
by organizations on their journey. 40%
30%
Our respondents indicate that most 20%
organizations begin agile transformations 10%
with a similar goal in mind, increased 0%
speed to delivery. Furthermore, virtually
every interviewee mentioned increased
speed as well. It is clearly a primary reason
why organizations adopt Agile. There are
three more benefits expected of 30-40%
of organizations embarking on their agile
journey: managing changing priorities
effectively, increasing productivity, and increasing collaboration across the Business.

Regarding the achievement of results, we

find the greatest portion of our respondents (% of respondents)
observe increased collaboration. Over 50% 60% Achieved by
of them observed increased collaboration, 75% of those
50% who intended
including 75% of organizations that
specifically set out to achieve this goal. 40% Only achieved
by 48% of those
30% who intended
Based on our experience, increased 20%
collaboration is typically the first benefit to be
10%
observed with independent cross-functional
teams working effectively. As teams complete 0%

their first sprints, start to release their products

and act on the feedback received their ability
to adapt to the changing environment is
clearly demonstrated. This builds the internal
buy-in for the transformation and encourages
further steps on the journey.

The two most observed results after increased collaboration are increased speed to delivery and
managing changing priorities. Speed as a benefit is not easy to achieve; less than half of the
organizations that wanted to increase speed realized the benefit.

Let’s look specifically at organizations currently in Stage 4 & 5 (scaling Agile to the broader
organization or already working in an Agile-at-scale model). Increased employee engagement
rises 200%, which means that although it is not commonly observed by a majority of companies
at an earlier stage, those that are at stage 4 & 5 are 2x more likely to report greater employee
engagement. At Banca Sella in Italy, Andrea Pozzi, their Deputy Manager of Branches Network
said, “The greatest tangible result and what has changed the most from before is the greater
engagement of people who feel they are the protagonists of their work.” An employee who is the

9
 champion of their work will be likely to stay and give their all for the bank, a mentality that may be
difficult to quantify but is crucial to success.

In general, benefits are experienced to a Observed Benefits of Agile Transformations

greater extent by those transformations % of Total Respondents, Scaled and non-scaled
that have scaled. Interestingly, the order 80%
70%
of the observed benefits remains the same 60%
Stage 2&3
50%
for scaled organizations. This means that 40%
Stage 4&5

the top benefits of collaboration, increased 30%

20%
speed, and ability to manage changing 10%
0%
priorities observed at initial stages remained
significant for transformations at more
advanced stages.

The least observed benefits, at all stages,

are improved employee retention, reduced
risk, reduced cost, and comparing favorably
with the competition. Based on our experience, these are typically difficult to observe unless specific
metrics and reporting mechanisms focusing on these areas are in place.

Our research suggests that barriers to Barriers to adopting Agile

adopting Agile are mostly related to change (# of respondents)
management, such as ‘lack of understanding
or belief in the need for change or change 40

fatigue. 35
30
The second highest barrier to adopting 25
Agile is Leadership, which includes factors 20
such as, insufficient leadership buy-in or 15
lack of strong sponsorship¬. As discussed 10
earlier, leadership engagement is critical for 5
success of the transformation. Kelauradze 0
from TBC shared with us that «We created a
Change Leadership Agile Type of work
«Management Squad, where the open and management Understanding
painful management issues provided by the
teams became our backlog. We continue to work in this format up to date and try to use the Agile
ceremonies here as well.»

Some executives fear that Agile ways of working could lead to a loss of control and authority. This
is not what Agile is about. Leaders in Agile organizations are responsible for defining and clearly
communicating strategic objectives, defining guardrails for the teams and empowering teams to
deliver the outcomes. Data collected from surveys and interviews, confirms that empowered teams
deliver great outcomes.

Trust is a key element in overcoming these barriers. According to Ton Hagens, Director Portfolio
Management and Expertise Lead from Volksbank, “One big element of transformation is building
trust. How do you build trust between leaders and teams? But also, how do you build trust across
teams? What helps in building trust is having a common goal. Define the goals well, preferably in
client terms, because client goals are the glue in an organization.”

Only a small number of our respondents indicated that regulatory challenges, for example risk
management and security regulations, are barriers to success. As agile practitioners have been
demonstrating for years, once an organization begins to transform its ways of working, it will quickly
learn to how to operate within its constraints.

10 Global business agility report: insights and interviews

Section three: How to avoid Agile
transformation pitfalls?
The results of this study indicate that most of the organizations are already quite advanced in their
journey, the path to Business Agility is not easy, but there are some common challenges to overcome.
Let us highlight some of the most common challenges we observe and how to address them based
on our case experience. We will highlight four challenges: getting agile roles and cross-functionality
correct, leveraging agile coaches, critical leadership behaviors, and successfully using OKR’s and a
quarterly planning cycle.

Key Agile roles and cross-functional teams

In short, the three key roles are Product Owner, Team Coach (Scrum Master) and Team Members. By
exercising effective collaboration, enhanced transparency and iterative feedback, the team works
independently to deliver outcomes. The Product Owner owns the product vision and represents the
customers. Team Members self-organize to deliver the work and Team Coach facilitates continuous
improvement. While scaling Agile, teams are grouped into Tribes that have a dedicated Tribe Lead
whose role is to help coordinate delivery of complex work and manage Tribe stakeholders and
Agile Coach supporting the Tribe. Finally, there are Chapters that provide the overall standards and
expertise that define how the work should be done with Chapter Leads in charge of this effort.

These roles form the core of any Agile organization. There is always an owner of the product or
process, team that delivers the work and a facilitator. This reflects the simplification of roles, the
key driving force behind increased productivity of Agile teams. This simplification brings numerous
benefits. It reduces overhead, promotes development of a broader set of skills and shared ownership
of purpose, and increases talent fungibility between teams or programs. It also supports employee
growth by offering clear career paths.

Any organization that wants to successfully scale Agile and reap the benefits must rely on cross-
functional teams. Leaders scale Agile to all parts of the organization. It’s not enough to transform
just the IT area. All teams should be cross-functional, customer centric and focused on delivering
value. Having team members with cross-functional skills allows to tear down silos that hinder the
collaboration and limit the performance of the organization. Some of the most common pitfalls that
we observe are related to multiple hand-offs and duplication of work – resulting in the “us vs. them”
mentality that disappears when people work together on cross-functional teams.

While Agile transformations typically start with pockets of Agile in IT area, it’s important to include
the Business as soon as possible. Organizations typically start by putting a “Business” person in
the Product Owner role and then follow up by building teams composed of both IT and Business
resources, mostly from product or process teams. Best performers don’t stop there. They bring
Business Agility also to customer service, operations, and support functions. Only then the frictions
between Agile and non-Agile parts of the organization can be eliminated and the true potential of
Business Agility can be unlocked.

Coaching support – coaching teams to maturity & Agile COE

Agile transformation will not succeed without the support of experienced Agile coaches. Without
professional guidance, it’s very easy to fall into one of the common pitfalls. Agile done superficially
and wrong will not only result in lack of business value generated but also no faith in the
transformation leading to frustration and active resistance from employees.

11
 Establishing a strong Agile Center of Expertise (CoE) can solve this problem. Agile CoE consists of
a group of experienced Agile Coaches supporting squads and tribes. An Agile CoE serves as the
custodian of Agile ways of working. It is the driver of transformation and serves as the single source
of truth ensuring consistent application of Agile ways of working across the organization. Its purpose
is to promote Agile mindset and ways of working, help squads embed Agile practices and facilitate
knowledge exchange and continuous improvement.

Agile Coaching is important, as demonstrated in this report. Majority of organizations in more

advanced stages of Agile transformations use their internal coaching resources grouped into Agile
CoEs. External support, while helpful to kick off the transformation is unsustainable in the longer
term. Building and growing internal coaching capabilities grouped into a CoE, managed from one
place and separated from functional areas is a necessity.

Furthermore, the role of Agile CoE doesn’t end once the organization has scaled Agile and
the teams have matured, it is adjusted to focus on sustaining maturity and addressing skill and
knowledge gaps as new starters come on board, or experienced practitioners transition out of their
roles. Overall, Agile CoE play a critical role in achieving and sustaining Business Agility.

One example from our recent case experience, concerning a bank that had embarked on a large-
scale Agile transformation journey illustrates the important role of strengthening internal coaching
capability. The bank struggled with scaling Agile ways of working, in particular with integrating
work of the mobile app team with the rest of the organization due to inconsistent application of Agile
across the organization. We retrained 20 cross-functional teams and established a common tribe-
wide language and baselined the understanding of new ways of working. Our experienced coaches
helped set up internal Agile CoE that could support further transformation ensuring consistency and
help sustain Business Agility.

Leadership behaviors

One of the most important factors of successful Agile transformation is strong leadership buy in and
sponsorship. In Agile transformations, leaders are typically expected to come first. By embracing and
modelling the mindset and behaviors they want to see, leadership demonstrates their commitment to
the journey. Organizations, whose leaders do not follow this approach are destined to fail.

Most leaders by now have an understanding of Agile as Agile has been growing in popularity
over the last 20 years and most leaders either took part in Agile initiatives or watched them from
a distance. Yet many leaders may have the wrong impression or sceptical attitude towards the
transformation based on their previous experience. Yet, as seen in this study, only 20% of leaders
at the beginning of a transformation had no dedicated Agile leadership coaching. If senior leaders
do not overcome their concerns that an organization can transform and work in new ways, this will
have profound impact on the journey and likely keep the enterprise from achieving Business Agility.
How can an organization successfully scale Agile if leaders are not convinced themselves?

To avoid this pitfall, each transformation supported by ADAPTOVATE starts with leadership alignment
in the form of immersion sessions including a training in Agile foundations. The goal is to build
common language, align on the approach and upskill leaders to spearhead the transformation,
living and breathing agile culture and values. Leadership alignment sessions are an opportunity to
achieve clarity on the “why”, unlock value and build the momentum for change. They also provide a
forum to discuss potential challenges and address concerns.

Another common mistake is a lack of dedicated leadership coaching throughout the transformation
or coaching that fails to recognize the need for broader coaching interventions (the most effective
leadership coaches, in our experience, do not only work with a dedicated leader but include other
key stakeholders on as needed basis to ensure sustained change in behaviors). Transformation

12 Global business agility report: insights and interviews

of mindset and behaviors is and extremely challenging journey and one that is almost impossible
without dedicated coaching support.

The leaders of Agile organizations need to set clear objectives, then empower people, support them
with the right resources, remove barriers and trust they will do their best to achieve outcomes. They
need to show commitment and engagement in day-to-day work e.g. by actively participating in
Agile ceremonies. They need to demonstrate ownership and encourage learning – including learning
through from one’s own mistakes. True Agile leaders are not afraid to show their vulnerable side and
openly share their failures in search of learnings and continuous improvement.

OKR and Quarterly Planning Cycle – doing it right

More than 50 years have passed since Andrew Grove introduced the concept known today as OKRs
– Objectives and Key Results - at Intel. Since then, many companies have followed and adopted the
practice, putting the Quarterly Delivery Cycle (QDC) and OKR at the center of their decision making.
Among the adopters of OKRs are many tech giants such as Google, Spotify, and Netflix. All of them
have credited OKRs for their success.

Most companies going through the transformation journey decide to implement QDC and OKRs
relatively early as they trust it will bring value. They believe that following in the footsteps of the
‘OKR unicorns’ can help them succeed. Our experience shows that while OKRs can in fact bring
tangible benefits to companies, they can also be harmful if not used correctly and, in fact, many
companies fail to use them correctly.

OKRs and QDC can bring value only if they are put in the heart of the organization – focusing the
organization on value and guiding every prioritisation decision. Companies like Google succeed
with OKRs because they “live and breathe” OKRs from top to bottom. All strategic initiatives are
prioritised, focused and measured using OKRs. OKRs ensure each user story that an Agile team
is working on can be traced back to a strategic objective of the organization. If a particular task
cannot be linked back to a strategic objective, it most likely should not be worked on at the time.
This particular aspect is extremely important to make sure the entire organization focuses on value
delivery.

OKRs are not to be confused with KPIs, which is another common pitfall that we observe. Most
executives have years of experience with setting and tracking KPIs. And while KPIs are great for
measuring performance they lack the ambition and focus defined by OKRs. In short, OKRs take a KPI
and ensure team focuses their efforts in a given period on making a significant step-change in it. That
ambition and focus on execution are the key distinguishing elements of a good set of OKRs. OKRs
are action-oriented, tangible and timebound. They are ambitious and inspirational. They must feel a
bit uncomfortable and completing them at 70% of the target Key Result is considered a success. It’s
fine for KPIs and OKRs to coexist in an organization because they serve a different purpose and are
typically complementary. Nonetheless, KPIs and OKRs are fundamentally different and should not be
used interchangeably.

Finally, Quarterly Delivery Cycle is a continuous prioritization process that an organization must
commit to. Fully embracing the QDC is a learning journey and takes time. At ADAPTOVATE we
typically support QDC implementation in a step-by-step iterative approach that consists of three
phases. In the initial phase we focus on achieving transparency of goals as well as prioritization
and capacity allocation discussions. In the second stage, the teams focus on the crisp articulation of
value, ownership of outcomes and accountability. Finally, as the organization is progressing towards
Agile maturity, the teams master the use of quarterly delivery roadmaps that enable conversation on
priorities across the entire organization. Both leadership and delivery teams make sure that the QDC
process is followed, iterated on, and continuously improved.

13
 Conclusion
Looking at the stage of Business Agility at financial institutions worldwide we can clearly say that
it’s well past the initial phase where a group of enthusiasts experimented with new ways of working
in “pockets of Agile” in the organization. It’s no longer a domain of the technology teams only.
Today’s complex business environment and prevalent use of technology blurred the lines between
technology and business and made working in cross-functional teams a necessity for market leaders.
Organizations at the early stages of Agile transformations should look for ways to intensify their
transformation efforts and those who are yet to experiment with new ways of working should not
wait any longer.

Any Agile transformation is worth only as much as the value it delivers. Organizations should define,
set, and track a set of metrics to be able to measure the progress and iterate on their learning
journey. While there is a certain set of Agile non-negotiables that should be in place for every mature
Agile organization, no two implementations are the same. Successful implementation considers the
specifics of the organization and is the results of multiple iterations on some of the key element of
Agile ways of working. Being able to measure the value delivered and Agile productivity will allow
to steer the journey in the right direction.

Being able to quickly respond to market changes and shifting customer preferences requires the
ability to refocus the entire organization around strategic objectives in a regular quarterly rhythm.
However, Quarterly Delivery Cycles and OKRs are much more than just processes or mechanisms
supporting alignment of work around the objectives. They should provide organization wide forum
for transparent conversation on goals, business priorities and available capacity, support setting
and achieving ambitious targets and foster a culture of testing and learning. Only then can the full
benefits of Business Agility be unlocked.

Mastering Business Agility is a journey through a winding that is best travelled with experienced
guidance. Investing in developing and growing internal Agile Coaching capabilities is critical
to success in scaling Agile ways of working. Leading organizations set up Agile Centers of
Expertise that promote new ways of working and ensure consistency of approach across the entire
organization. Leadership coaching constitutes a critical success factor as experience shows that very
often Agile “starts and stops at the top”.

The benefits of Business Agility that are typically the quickest to emerge are increased collaboration,
with significant number of organizations pointing also at the ability to manage changing priorities
and speed which is critical to compete and survive in the current fast-paced competitive environment.
That in itself is reason enough to intensify the efforts towards adopting Agile ways of working.
Additional benefits emerging at more mature transformation stages reward those who are committed
to their transformation journeys – increasing productivity and creating working environments that
help attract and retain the best talent. Mature Agile organizations have a culture of transparency and
trust that create and maintain high employee engagement, reflected in great outcomes.

Organizations looking to scale their Agile ways of working need to always keep in mind that “the
transformation towards Business Agility is a journey. A journey that is all about progress, not about
perfection”.

14 Global business agility report: insights and interviews

Interviews
Gökhan Gökçay
Digital, Payments, and Data Technology Leader
Akbank

“Thanks to Agile, we observed significant improvements across all metrics.

When we look at our time to market since 2015, we see improvements of
up to 40%. In addition to that number, there is an increase of up to 30% in
the number of completed projects and requests.”

Emel Arseven
Senior Vice President, Digital and Open Banking
Akbank

Read More

Maria Martin san Cristobal

Business Transformation and Innovation Manager
AXA

“Teams are proposing new solutions, use cases, and functionalities. The
good thing is they are not concerned when the result is not what we initially
expected, because this is part of the mindset. You can fail and you can
change it.”

Read More

Andrea Pozzi
Deputy Manager of Branches Network
Banca Sella

“The greatest advantage is to have 100% dedicated resources to the

squad. It is not easy but it is the only way to ensure the success of Agile.
People involved in Agile projects must stop doing what they are doing to
dedicate themselves 100% to the project.”

Read More

Stefaan Stroo
Global HR Transformation Manager
ING

“This shift in thinking is so difficult because restructuring and redesigning

teams may be a little complex, but you can make it work eventually.
Changing the mindset and really empowering people and teams remains
the most challenging aspect of Agile.”

Read More

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 Interviews
Andrea Lecce
Executive Director Sales & Marketing Retail
Intesa Sanpaolo

“To compete within the fast-moving digital world, financial institutions

should prioritize the creation of the best customer experience. That is
possible only by increasing market responsiveness as well as by delivering
constant innovations, to ultimately be able to address the client’s changing
behaviors.”
Read More

Ivan Sakotic
Digital Platform Product Owner
Raiffeisen

“Customer experience, business agility, and operational efficiency, in my

opinion, are the primary goals that push organizations to undergo greater
Agility. This requires modern organizations to be both bold and Agile to
keep up with the pace of the evolving landscape.”

Read More

Lenka Pincot
Head of Agile Transformation
Raiffeisen Czech Republic

“The success of Agile transformation lies greatly in our ability to shift the
culture from the traditionally risk averse approach to the fast learning, data-
driven decision-making and willingness to experiment. In such a journey,
there is not really a part of the bank that should be left aside.”

Read More

Stefan Davill
Operative Sponsor Agile Transformation
SEB

“All Agile transformations are different. Just putting Agile in the headline
will make everybody respond in a different way. At SEB, it is an intangible
corporate asset. It is the ability to prepare and react to change in a
competitive market and pivot not to survive, but to actually thrive.”

Read More

16 Global business agility report: insights and interviews

Interviews
Branislav Jarabek
Head of Organizational Change
Slovenska Sporitelna

“Driving our local change not as top-down or bottom-up but from the middle
management outward is allowing us to manage the change from the top of
the organization as well as monitor its impact in detail on the bottom level.”

Read More

Julian L. Moneta
COO Enablement & Transformation, Consumer
Private & Business Banking
Standard Chartered

“We are dramatically de-layering our organization. We are seeing a shift

in culture towards collaboration, bottom up innovation, and simplified
delivery cadence.”

Read More

Inga Kelauradze
Agile Transformation Lead
TBC

“You are never 100% ready for change. Of course, we were not ready in
all directions. However, we figured we should definitely start trying things
in the real world in order to better understand what kind of changes were
needed and not waste our time on theoretical discussions.”

Read More

Ton Hagens
Director Portfolio Management & Expertise Lead
Volksbank

“I have not found areas where it is not wise to use Agile. The ones that are
typically against it are the ones that need it the most. IT departments are
usually in favor and they need it relatively the least. The transformations I
have done in the last 5-6 years include all the areas of the bank.”

Read More

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 Global business agility report:
insights and interviews
Efma & ADAPTOVATE
November 2021

A global non-profit organization, established

in 1971 by banks and insurance companies,
Efma facilitates networking between decision-
makers. It provides quality insights to help
banks and insurance companies make the right
decisions to foster innovation and drive their
transformation. 120 financial groups in 133
countries are Efma members.

Headquartered in Paris. Offices in London,

Brussels, Andorra, Milan, Stockholm,
Bratislava, Warsaw, Moscow, Istanbul,
Beirut, Dubai, Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney and
Montreal.

Learn more www.efma.com

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