Opinno examines Spanish companies' agility level

• It launches the "Agile Maturity Index", which shows the results of a survey of more than 600 companies - 260 of which are Spanish - in more than 20 countries.
• Spain is at the forefront in strategy, governance and culture, but still needs to improve its structure, talent and technology. Agile organisation that are leading the way are in the banking, energy, insurance and telecoms sectors.

Photo: Enterprise Agility: A step towards true agility. Credit: Opinno

Madrid, 4th March 2021.- Spanish companies still have a long way to go in terms of corporate agility, according to the "Agile Maturity Index" report carried out by the consultancy Opinno in collaboration with Workday in more than 20 countries and more than 600 companies, 260 of which are Spanish. This study involved different profiles within the company, such as CEOs, CIOs, CMOs and CTOs, and analysed issues such as the relationship between the age of the organisation and its level of agility, the sectors that are ahead in terms of organisational agility and how the corporate culture is perceived from the perspective of transformation.

Companies' competitiveness today faces a number of new challenges: the lack of speed in generating and improving business models, the gap between strategy and teams, the mismatch between business and technology, ageing, fragile and costly technical architectures, unmotivated talent and obsolete skills.

"The Agile model was created in response to these challenges," says Pedro Moneo, founder and CEO of Opinno, "and its adoption allows companies to be faster and more agile in adapting to the needs and priorities of the moment, reducing the time to market of products and services, increasing the value delivered to customers and reducing project risk".

According to Adolfo Pellicer, Workday Country Manager for Spain and Portugal, "There are five key behaviours that are crucial to achieving organisational agility: continuous planning, which is key to helping organisations react quickly to changing market conditions and potential threats to the business; having agile structures and processesin place, enabling them to quickly realign their two most important assets - human resources and finance - to meet the needs of the organisation; building a workforce for the future; enabling decision making by providing the right information at the right time; and robust, accurate and timely measurement and controls".

The index shows that 62.5% of organisations with more than 50,000 employees are already working in an Agile way. However, it also warns that organisations between 16 and 50 years old are lagging the furthest behind: although they have started their transformation, only about 6% have reached adequate parameters. However, smaller organisations, which are born with an Agile spirit, must continue to strengthen this philosophy and ensure that they continue to grow in this area.

Photo: 62.5% of organisations with more than 50,000 employees are already working in an Agile way. Credit: Opinno

Banking, one of the most advanced sectors in agility

The Tech&Telco and Banking & Insurance sectors are leading the way in terms of agility, while the Public Sector, Industry and Retail are still at a disadvantage. In addition, the leading sectors have realised that it is key to deploy technology swiftly or else they will be out of the market very quickly, so they have focused on technology projects, new ways of working and agile technology infrastructure.

The financial industry has been a pioneer, as the banking sector has had to adapt more quickly and effectively than other sectors to market contingencies. It has achieved this advantage by adjusting core elements of business management, as well as budget allocation, prioritisation and decision-making cycles and models.

BBVA is one of Spain's leading companies in Agile transformation. Imma Catalá, global head of strategy and solutions development at T&C, points out some key learning points for companies that are just starting out in this methodology, "it's about starting small and scaling up based on experience, constantly measuring and then communicating to remain competitive. Tools are important, but people are more important, and it is the interactions that must take precedence over the process. We are talking about a far-reaching cultural change that must be linked to the transformation of talent and understanding the concept of liquidity in teams that are strategically assigned but no longer belong to units. Finally, follow the motto stop starting & start finishing, in other words, be clear that the objective is to finish things".

Photo: Banking, one of the most advanced sectors in agility. Credit: Opinno

Corporate culture: one of the main challenges

Corporate culture is one of the main obstacles that companies face when implementing agility, according to 40% of the organisations surveyed in the study. According to this Index, the older the organisation, the more significant the challenges in terms of culture. Adolfo Pellicer also agrees: "the main obstacles are twofold: inflexible legacy technologies and bureaucratic organisational culture. For a good system to work, it must be supported by an open mindset, which is essential and must be established in the first place, since any modernisation of systems is a change in the way they are used and in the way business processes are executed". Companies have experienced the need to opt for SaaS models, which allow them to operate with greater agility, scalability and easy access from anywhere. Technology that enables better data management and facilitates the efficient implementation of planning models that can be quickly modified to adapt to a changing reality.

Photo: Spanish vs. global companies' agility performance. Credit: Opinno

Pending challenges in Spain

Lastly, the Agile Maturity Index examines the main challenges that Spanish companies still face, among which the following stand out:

• The agility of the team is no longer enough, it needs to permeate through the organisation as a whole.
• Agile Transformation needs to be generated and led by the management.
• A change of mindset towards an Agile culture is essential.
• Transformation starts from the inside; human resources processes are key.