JUNE 2021CIOAPPLICATIONSEUROPE.COM8IN MYOPINIONhe following piece will approach the topic of Enterprise Agility with regards to the ever prevalent and increasing pressure of cyber threats on organisations.It will start by quickly reviewing the stance of Agile, discuss its relevance to the corporate dynamics and organisational structure, describe gaps in the mindset and processes, and conclude with the implication that without greater agility, resilience won't be realised, and organisations will retain a `fire-fighting' operational stance while facing increasing levels of internal friction while trying to pivot.Two prevalent perspectives have matured that fundamentally shift the traditional outlook on organisational structure and direction:1. The idea that all companies are digital companies, regardless of their business sector2. The expansion of Agile software methods to organisational practicesThese two revolutions in the Enterprise space are having disruptive implications with regards to how companies' structure and run their businesses, and when not leveraged, will ensure the death knell for those unable to demonstrate agility.Agile:Agile practices arose out of frustrations in the software development space in having to conform to structured development programmes (Waterfall), that prioritised planning and rigidity over adaptation and flexibility.After significant failures of this model (Kaur, Sengupta, 2011), Sutherland and Schwaber countered Royce with the development of the Scrum process, which inspired 17 software developers in 2001 to pen the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, which laid the foundation, and provided the impetus, for today's more successful software development and deployment (CI/CD) methods.The evolution of this development from structured and planned, to flexible and adaptive, provides a useful metaphor for the evolving business environment, whose adherence to fixed planning and structure, a relic of the industrial revolution, has yet to have lost its shackles to the modern global environment, where opportunities and challenges resist prediction, given the stochastic landscape in which all Enterprise's now operate.The answer is therefore to plan for disruption, process engineer innovation and build in agility, which will ensure reducing the time required to pivot, implicitly create resilience, and ensure a competitive outlook for the organisation.Cyber threat case study:To exemplify the point, one only needs to look at the recent Enterprise Agility in the Face of Rising Cyber ThreatsAs a leader, one needs to start asking the correct questions about resilience, adaptability, and contingencyTAN INTERVIEW WITH JONATHAN SINCLAIR, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, CYBER SECURITY, BRISTOL MYERS SQUIBB
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