Are You Prepared to Take on Responsibility Yourself?

Adrian Schweizer, management trainer and consultant, based in Zurich, Switzerland

The organisational structures of businesses depend on their social, economic and technological context. The following article gives an overview of various organisational structures, places them in the context of stages of social evolution, and outlines the developments that have led to the idea of an agile business organisation.

The Agile Manager

Ulrich Geuther, business coach, trainer and consultant, based in Lisbon, Portugal

In the following article on leadership challenges in the 21st century, Ulrich Geuther investigates what agile leadership means and what qualities leaders need to develop in order to make the most of the possibilities offered by the agile approach – for themselves and for their companies.

Agile Organizations – New Principles in Corporate Governance

Wolfgang Rückert, Synpulse Management Consulting, Frankfurt/Main, Germany

Today’s environment is forcing organizations to become more adaptive, evolve more quickly, and improve continuously with a close customer focus. In response, a new agile way of working has gained traction. Based on the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, and thus clearly coming from the IT area, a number of companies in different industries have transferred these agile principles to their way of working in all areas and to their organizational structure. For this kind of organization, the term “agile organization” has been created. This article outlines the facets and basics of agile organizations.

Don’t Do Too Much Planning

Dr. Peter Ott and Wolfram Spengler, Ernst & Young GmbH, Munich, Germany

Agile Project Management(APM) is becoming increasingly interesting, especially for insurance companies that have often not yet dealt with the use of agile methods. The multitude of regulatory requirements that the industry has to deal with (Solvency II, IFRS 9, IFRS 17 and ICS are just a few examples) forces companies to parallelize projects. Without the flexible coordination between the various projects made possible by agile project management, this can hardly be mastered.

Agility on Its Own Is Not the Solution

Dr. Robin Kiera, insurtech expert and influencer, digitalscouting.de, Hamburg, Germany

Champions of agile principles and traditional project management approaches regularly argue about which approach is better: “agile freedom and creativity” or “stability through documentation and processes”. After 10 years in large corporations and startups, Dr. Robin Kiera comes to the conclusion that both concepts miss the mark in terms of the reality of large insurance firms and startups. Instead, he believes there are four factors that are essential for success.