ORGANIZATION AGILITY

Presented By: Presented to:

Hadeel Sayed Dr. Sarah Yassein
Ayman Tarek
Amr Shokair Course Name:
Mohamed Zoear HRM924
Haitham Mohamed Class 2L
Ahmed AbdElrahman
Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Definition Organizational Agility..................................................................................................................4
Agile Manifesto Values and Principles.........................................................................................................5
The four Agile Manifesto values..............................................................................................................5
1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools..................................................................5
2. Working software over comprehensive documentation...............................................................5
3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation........................................................................5
4. Responding to change over following a plan.................................................................................6
The 12 Agile Manifesto principles...........................................................................................................7
1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of
valuable software...............................................................................................................................7
2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change
for the customer's competitive advantage........................................................................................7
3. Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a
preference to the shorter timescale...................................................................................................7
4. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project....................7
5. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they
need, and trust them to get the job done..........................................................................................7
6. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development
team is face-to-face conversation......................................................................................................7
7. Working software is the primary measure of progress..................................................................7
8. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should
be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely...............................................................................7
9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.........................8
10. Simplicity — the art of maximizing the amount of work not done — is essential......................8
11. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams...........8
12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and
adjusts its behavior accordingly.........................................................................................................8
Importance of Organizational Agility...........................................................................................................9
Adapt to Change......................................................................................................................................9
Higher Revenue Growth..........................................................................................................................9
More Engaged Employees.......................................................................................................................9
Essential characteristics of agile organizations consist of the following:.....................................................9

Page 1 of 27
Methods of Increasing the Organizational Agility......................................................................................10
1. Adopt the Right Mindset...................................................................................................................10
2. Hire the Right People.........................................................................................................................10
3. Create a Vision with Goals.................................................................................................................10
4. Remove Organizational Silos.............................................................................................................11
5. Iterate and Improve...........................................................................................................................11
Relation between HR and Organizational Agility.......................................................................................12
How can HR deliver agility and resilience across the business?.............................................................12
The Agile Methodology.........................................................................................................................12
From HR (Human Resources) to RH (Resources for Humans)................................................................12
HR Agile Approach.............................................................................................................................12
How to apply agile to HR.......................................................................................................................14
Benefits of agile HR approach................................................................................................................14
Methods of Increasing the Organizational Agility....................................................................................16
1. Adopt the Right Mindset...................................................................................................................16
2. Hire the Right People.........................................................................................................................16
3. Create a Vision With Goals................................................................................................................17
4. Remove Organizational Silos.............................................................................................................17
5. Iterate and Improve...........................................................................................................................18
5 ways to improve business agility........................................................................................................18
Applications and Examples of OA..............................................................................................................20
Netflix “Success Example of implementation of OA”.............................................................................20
First Steps..........................................................................................................................................20
Overall Business Strategy..................................................................................................................21
Nokia “ Failure Example due to not Implementing OA”:.......................................................................21
Nokia Didn’t adapt to change............................................................................................................22
References.................................................................................................................................................23

Page 2 of 27
Introduction

In this research we will be Discussing the Organizational agility , will go through the Definition and the
Importance of Organization agility, will also illustrate the ways to improve and increase the organization
agility , will take about the relation between the HR Management and Organization agility and the role
of HR in improving the OA, at the end will talk about a success organization example which applies the
OA and a failed organization which didn’t apply the OA ,

Page 3 of 27
Definition Organizational Agility
Companies today run increase pressure to change and adopt destructive technologies, new competitors
and more demanding customers, all this require business to change quickly, so for organization to be
competitive they must be Agile.

So Organizational agility is a company’s ability to rapidly change or adapt in response to changes in the
market. There are many examples of how organizational agility can benefit a company. One example of
an online retailer that has adapted and responded to market changes is Amazon. 

The more flexible your company is and the faster it can adjust to inevitable industry changes, the better
prepared it will be to win market share, improve organizational efficiency, and boost customer
satisfaction and loyalty.

There are different forms of organizational agility. Here are a few:

 Operational Agility: This form of agility refers to an organization’s ability to quickly adapt to new
opportunities with the potential to improve operational efficiency.
 Portfolio Agility: This form of agility refers to an organization’s ability to quickly move company
resources to better the business as a whole.
 Strategic Agility: This form of agility refers to an organization’s ability to adapt and gain
competitive advantages via new innovations as quickly as possible.

A truly agile company will have mastered operational, portfolio, and strategic agility forms so that they
can thrive in all situations.

Page 4 of 27
Agile Manifesto Values and Principles
The Agile Manifesto is a document which was created by 17 Software Engineers that outlines the central
values and principles of Agile software development. Officially referred to as the Manifesto for Agile
Software Development, the guide aims to provide an effective model for teams to successfully adopt the
philosophy of Agile project management and use it to improve their work process. 

The lightweight framework of the Agile Manifesto was designed to improve upon existing software
development processes, which were more complex and contained a lot of documentation. The founders
wanted to speed up these processes and create a more efficient working model for teams.

Put simply, the Agile Manifesto is an alternative to traditional software development methodologies.

The four Agile Manifesto values

The Agile Manifesto was founded on four key values, which are as follows:

1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

The first value gets straight to the core of Agile methodology: the focus is on the people. You can use the
best processes and tools available to support your projects, but they will only work if your people are
doing their best work. Your team is your most valuable resource. Communication plays a key role here
— when people interact with each other regularly and share their ideas, they build better products.

Jim Highsmith, one of the authors of the Agile Manifesto, wrote about the importance of the “mushy
stuff,” meaning prioritizing people over processes. Rather than simply proclaiming that people are the
most important factor, he advises that software developers actually act as if people are the most
important factor.

2. Working software over comprehensive documentation

Before Agile practices were fully implemented, teams would spend hours creating exhaustive
documents with technical specifications, requirements, and more. These lists would be prepared before
developers started to write the code, meaning the whole process was delayed as the documentation
took so long to compile.

The Agile philosophy is to streamline these documents and condense the information into user stories.
These stories equip the developer with all the details they need to start working on the software and get
it ready for release. The idea is to accelerate the launch process and make product tweaks in the early
stages, improving the software in future iterations.

3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

The third value of the Agile Manifesto highlights the importance of customer collaboration. This is
viewed as superior to contract negotiation, which involves outlining product requirements with the
customer before commencing the project and then renegotiating these deliverables at a later stage. The
issue here is that the customer is not engaged throughout the development cycle, so teams lose out on
user feedback that could enhance the product.

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When you bring your customers into the development process, you can ask for their opinions regularly
and take their suggestions on board. By delving into their specific needs while the software is still being
built, developers can gain valuable insights to create the ultimate user experience.

4. Responding to change over following a plan

Traditional methodologies advocated for as little change as possible, recognizing that significant
alterations could cost time and money. The aim was to create a comprehensive plan that followed a
structured, linear path and avoided obstacles where possible.

The Agile mentality turns this rigid method on its head, arguing that change can benefit the software
development process. When you embrace change, you open yourself up to new possibilities and ways to
improve. Agile teams work in short, iterative cycles, meaning they can react quickly and implement
changes on a continuous basis. This ultimately leads to better products.

These four values form the basis of Agile software development, highlighting key priority areas for teams
to focus their energies on. The core values are supported by the 12 Agile Manifesto principles.

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The 12 Agile Manifesto principles
The Agile Manifesto lists 12 principles to be followed by software developers:

1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of
valuable software.
What is the number one rule in software development? Keep your customer happy. Aim to deliver
software to your users at regular intervals throughout the project life cycle, rather than keep them
waiting for one final deliverable.

2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness

change for the customer's competitive advantage.
Software developers should be capable of handling last-minute changes to a project. They should be
flexible enough to turn these changes into improvements quickly, minimizing delays and ensuring an
uninterrupted flow of work. 

3. Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with
a preference to the shorter timescale.
Agile teams break large projects down into short timelines to guarantee regular delivery. In the Scrum
methodology, these timelines are known as sprints, which often run between one and four weeks long.

4. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
As mentioned, collaboration is key to Agile project management. When the project stakeholders
communicate on a daily basis, it minimizes the risk of confusion and ensures that everyone’s goals
remain aligned.

5. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support
they need, and trust them to get the job done.
When you have the right people for the task, the project is more likely to be successful. Spend time
choosing the perfect team, equip them with the resources they need, and trust them to deliver
exceptional results.

6. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a
development team is face-to-face conversation.
Barriers are broken easily when teams can converse in person. Co-locate teams where possible to
promote good communication and boost the flow of information. In a remote working situation, Zoom is
a great alternative to phone or email, enabling people to interact more effectively via camera.

7. Working software is the primary measure of progress.

To keep your customers satisfied, you must deliver high-quality software. That is your ultimate priority
and your metric for success — everything else is a secondary consideration.

8. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users
should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
Agile teams must be consistent throughout their project life cycle, maintaining their speed throughout.
This means they can sustain a constantly evolving environment without succumbing to delays.

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9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
In Agile, you don’t just deliver one good product and call it a day — your focus should be on continuous
improvement and innovation. Each iteration should bring with it a new update, feature, or advancement
of some kind.

10. Simplicity — the art of maximizing the amount of work not done — is essential.
The Agile approach is to not overcomplicate things: meet your requirements and do just enough to
complete the task. Don’t waste time with additional steps that don’t add any real value to your product.

11. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
Why micromanage teams when they are skilled enough to work on their own? By allowing them to work
within their own structures, you create more room for ideas to flourish, ultimately delivering better
results.

12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and
adjusts its behavior accordingly.
When you review team performance regularly, you can spot issues before they escalate, as well as
potential areas for improvement. A healthy Agile team is one that self-reflects in order to eliminate
unhelpful practices and advance skills.

By studying the four values and 12 principles of the Agile Manifesto, software development teams will
have a clear understanding of what it truly means to be Agile.

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Importance of Organizational Agility
Adapt to Change
Things in business are always changing — oftentimes in complex ways. What works today,
might not work tomorrow. The companies that are able to anticipate incoming changes, pivot
with speed, and capitalize on new trends, technology, etc. generally have the most success.
The only way to pivot quickly is to prioritize organizational agility so that your business is
properly prepared when the time comes to make a shift.
Higher Revenue Growth
Agile organizations often achieve higher revenue numbers. It makes sense: if a company is
able to capitalize on new trends and ideas before its competitors, it will be able to release
new products and services faster and secure new customers with less effort.
Also, organizational agility relies on clear roles and tasks for all company personnel. When
you’re team knows exactly what they need to do, they’ll be able to do it more efficiently, thus
reducing wasted hours and boosting your business’s bottom line.
More Engaged Employees
Lastly, organizational agility usually leads to more engaged employees. As modern workers
want to be a part of exciting companies where innovation is valued and encouraged. Agile
businesses generally fall into this category.
Employee engagement is extremely important because the cost of turnover is high. The
average staffer will change jobs 12 times over the course of his or her career. Every time they
do, it will cost the company they leave 1.5 – 2x their annual salary. By prioritizing
organizational agility, you can better engage your employees and reduce staff turnover.

Essential characteristics of agile organizations consist of the following:

1) Focusing on the client and adapting to his/her current and future needs.
2) Forming smart teams capable of collectively responding to crises and shocks.
3) Adopting a culture of growth and success in which failure is regarded as part of learning to
move forward

Page 9 of 27
Page 10 of 27
Methods of Increasing the Organizational Agility
1. Adopt the Right Mindset
True organizational agility starts with the right mindset. You have to prioritize agility, while still
maintaining stability. Referring back to McKinsey:

“Dynamic practices enable companies to respond nimbly and quickly to new challenges and
opportunities, while stable practices cultivate reliability and efficiency by establishing a backbone of
elements that don’t need to change frequently.”

You can find the right balance between dynamic and stable practices by identifying the backbone of
your organization, i.e. the things that remain steady like business structures and processes, and
combining them with agile principles such as a flexible resource allotment strategy, cross functional
collaboration, and employee autonomy.

2. Hire the Right People

The Human Resources department plays a large role in how agile an organization is. The folks your
company hires will either make it easy to increase agility or nearly impossible. That’s why it’s important
to hire with organizational agility in mind.

Rather than only hiring for specific skill sets like content marketing expertise, hire employees who
exhibit above average creativity and curiosity and are able to easily collaborate with others as well. It
will also be beneficial to employ staff members who display an entrepreneurial spirit, as they’ll be more
capable of working autonomously and innovating.

This hiring philosophy will ensure your team has the expertise it needs to complete its work, but will also
preserve organizational agility via worker mindsets that allow for innovation. This balance within your
company’s workforce is essential.

3. Create a Vision with Goals

A consistent, company-wide vision that all employees can work towards using predetermined actionable
strategies will help to ensure organizational agility too. In fact, this is one of the key principles missing
from slow, plodding businesses who are stable, but completely unable to quickly adapt to changing
environments.

A shared company vision also helps to boost employee engagement, which, in turn, increases individual
job satisfaction and team productivity and reduces staff turnover.

Lastly, a clear vision, broken down into set of goals, will help you better prioritize your team’s efforts and
accomplish tasks that have the greatest organizational impact. By increasing efficiency, you’ll also boost
your company’s agility.

Page 11 of 27
4. Remove Organizational Silos
Most companies are structured in ways that restrict inter-departmental collaboration. Marketing, sales,
and product divisions, for example, all focus on their individual tasks, only working together when they
absolutely have to.

The problem is, silos restrict agility. It’s much easier to react to industry changes when all teams are
comfortable working together. Rather than trudging through bureaucratic red tape (e.g. getting buy-in
from multiple department heads, each with their own agendas), teams can quickly make decisions
because all management professionals are on the same page and working towards the same common
goals, as defined by the company vision.

Unfortunately, removing silos can be difficult — especially for businesses that have used a siloed
organizational structure for most of their history. It’s not impossible, though.

Each of the tips we’ve already mentioned (and the one we’ll mention in the next step) will help break
down walls between departments:

1. Adopt the Right Mindset

2. Hire the Right People
3. Create a Vision With Goals
4. Iterate and Improve

Here’s another tip: use the right tools. There are an abundance of technology solutions that will help
you connect and collaborate with your colleagues — even if they happen to work in different
departments. One of those tools is CloudApp.

CloudApp combines screen and webcam recording, GIF creation, and image annotation features into
one intuitive application that can be used for free. Get started today and make office communication
much easier and more enjoyable.

5. Iterate and Improve

Finally, to improve organizational agility, you have to analyze your efforts in this area and adjust them
accordingly. For example, you may find that your company vision isn’t understood by all team members,
causing conflicts of interest amongst your staff. By simply redefining your vision in a more
comprehensive way, you can eliminate this problem.

You should always be looking for ways to iterate and improve — that’s what makes a company agile,
after all. Without the ability to change quickly while maintaining stability, your business will remain a
slow-moving machine.

Page 12 of 27
Relation between HR and Organizational Agility
Agility means the ability to respond quickly and effectively to challenges

Agility in HR refers, in part, to the ability of HR to respond quickly and effectively to changes and
challenges regarding business requirements and updates, workplace disruption and employee
expectations.

How can HR deliver agility and resilience across the business?

When we think of agility we often think of technology. HR technology is the human enabler for
delivering a robust, resilient and agile organization both today and into the future. Whatever that future
might be!

Activating agility can be tough as people leaders adjust to new regulations, changing attitudes and new
flexible ways of working. HR are laying the foundation for HR agility.

The Agile Methodology

Let’s first look at what the agile methodology is and then see how it translates to HR. 

“Agile is an iterative approach to project management and software development that helps teams
deliver value to their customers faster and with fewer headaches. Instead of betting everything on a “big
bang” launch, an agile team delivers work in small but consumable increments. Requirements, plans,
and results are evaluated continuously, so teams have a natural mechanism for responding to change
quickly.” 

From HR (Human Resources) to RH (Resources for Humans)

HR Agile Approach
Traditional approach Agile approach – living and breathing

Learning and development is consumed ‘in the

Learning and development initiatives are moment’, when needed.  It’s accessible by
annual or fixed. employees’ mobile devices – when they need
it.

HR systems continually update automatically,

HR systems are static or developed and incorporating best practice, legislative changes
updated once every few years. and new functionality to meet the business
needs.

Engagement and engagement pulse surveys Engagement is an ongoing initiative, delivered

are annual. in real-time to each and every employee.

Performance reviews and appraisals delivered From ‘coffee chats’ to giving immediate
annually. feedback/kudos to, performance reviews and

Page 13 of 27
 objective setting undertaken as and when
needed.

Real time access to all HR records from any

Access to personal records requires emails to
device, with in-built rules and checks – for
HR, forms or requests.
compliance peace of mind.

Page 14 of 27
How to apply agile to HR
Below are general steps that you can pick and choose from when applying the agile
methodology to HR.

1.Define the problem

Before you can use any methodology to improve an HR process, you first need to identify the exact issue
you are trying to improve. The best way to find out is by consulting with all the relevant stakeholders
involved

2. Decide on your resources and define roles and responsibilities

Once you know the problem, the next step is to put together a team that can tackle it. Agile teams are
usually small and have complementary skills.

3. Develop your goals

In the agile approach, goals are what need to be delivered by the end of each sprint. These can be
broken down into activities that create a ‘backlog.’ You need to develop this backlog to decide what you
need to do and how long it will take. The entire team needs to contribute to this process.

4. Start with your first sprint

As we’ve mentioned before, a sprint is a specified and usually short period of time that a team tries to
complete a certain amount of work. This helps teams get things done faster, and the maximum time for
a sprint is usually four weeks.

5. Take note of feedback

After completing your sprint, you’ll go into a sprint review.

Here you need to consider the feedback, both from the team and from clients or end-users. Understand
what some issues that arose were, identify barriers to success and frustration points. Analyze if there’s a
fair workload and if collaboration has taken place. If there are notable successes from the first sprint, be
sure to celebrate this. This will help the team to be more motivated for upcoming sprints.

Benefits of agile HR approach

There is a method behind the madness of an agile HR approach. The benefits for an agile HR approach
include, but are not limited to the following: 

Improved team collaboration – There is better communication and teamwork between employees
of different parts of the organization. Agile HR also emphasizes transparency and therefore instills
enhanced trust throughout the team. 

Continuous feedback – Feedback is received on a more regular and consistent basis. This enables HR
to develop solutions that are relevant and effective. 

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Better adaptability – The pandemic has highlighted the need for teams to adapt to changing
conditions. The agile methodology aims to “test, learn and optimize,” allowing teams to shift quickly if
needed.

Greater measurement of output – Agile emphasizes results, which is evident in the present
dashboards and visualizations. As a result, the HR department can show direct results related to the
time, cost, and performance of any initiative.

Page 16 of 27
Methods of Increasing the Organizational Agility

1. Adopt the Right Mindset

True organizational agility starts with the right mindset. You have to prioritize agility, while still
maintaining stability. Referring back to McKinsey:

“Dynamic practices enable companies to respond nimbly and quickly to new challenges and
opportunities, while stable practices cultivate reliability and efficiency by establishing a backbone of
elements that don’t need to change frequently.”

You can find the right balance between dynamic and stable practices by identifying the backbone of
your organization, i.e. the things that remain steady like business structures and processes, and
combining them with agile principles such as a flexible resource allotment strategy, cross functional
collaboration, and employee autonomy.

2. Hire the Right People

The Human Resources department plays a large role in how agile an organization is. The folks your
company hires will either make it easy to increase agility or nearly impossible. That’s why it’s important
to hire with organizational agility in mind.

Page 17 of 27
Rather than only hiring for specific skill sets like content marketing expertise, hire employees who
exhibit above average creativity and curiosity and are able to easily collaborate with others as well. It
will also be beneficial to employ staff members who display an entrepreneurial spirit, as they’ll be more
capable of working autonomously and innovating.

This hiring philosophy will ensure your team has the expertise it needs to complete its work, but will also
preserve organizational agility via worker mindsets that allow for innovation. This balance within your
company’s workforce is essential.

3. Create a Vision With Goals

A consistent, company-wide vision that all employees can work towards using predetermined actionable
strategies will help to ensure organizational agility too. In fact, this is one of the key principles missing
from slow, plodding businesses who are stable, but completely unable to quickly adapt to changing
environments.

A shared company vision also helps to boost employee engagement, which, in turn, increases individual
job satisfaction and team productivity and reduces staff turnover.

Lastly, a clear vision, broken down into set of goals, will help you better prioritize your team’s efforts and
accomplish tasks that have the greatest organizational impact. By increasing efficiency, you’ll also boost
your company’s agility.

4. Remove Organizational Silos

Most companies are structured in ways that restrict inter-departmental collaboration. Marketing, sales,
and product divisions, for example, all focus on their individual tasks, only working together when they
absolutely have to.

Page 18 of 27
The problem is, silos restrict agility. It’s much easier to react to industry changes when all teams are
comfortable working together. Rather than trudging through bureaucratic red tape (e.g. getting buy-in
from multiple department heads, each with their own agendas), teams can quickly make decisions
because all management professionals are on the same page and working towards the same common
goals, as defined by the company vision.

Unfortunately, removing silos can be difficult — especially for businesses that have used a siloed
organizational structure for most of their history. It’s not impossible, though.

Each of the tips we’ve already mentioned (and the one we’ll mention in the next step) will help break
down walls between departments:

 Adopt the Right Mindset

 Hire the Right People
 Create a Vision With +Goals
 Iterate and Improve

Here’s another tip: use the right tools. There are an abundance of technology solutions that will help
you connect and collaborate with your colleagues — even if they happen to work in different
departments.

5. Iterate and Improve

Finally, to improve organizational agility, you have to analyze your efforts in this area and adjust them
accordingly. For example, you may find that your company vision isn’t understood by all team members,
causing conflicts of interest amongst your staff. By simply redefining your vision in a more
comprehensive way, you can eliminate this problem.

You should always be looking for ways to iterate and improve — that’s what makes a company agile,
after all. Without the ability to change quickly while maintaining stability, your business will remain a
slow-moving machine.

5 ways to improve business agility

1. Rapidly introduce new products and services

When customers demand new products and services or as an organization you need to make changes to
existing offerings, time is often a luxury that cannot be afforded. When design, manufacturing, sales,
service, finance and other interested functions need to come together, the location of individuals or
teams, differing time zones or technology should not be a barrier to rapid objective setting or decision
making.

2. Consider shareholder value a leading KPI

With teams successfully integrated, sharing information and working closely together the cost of
product development can be managed allowing margins to increase. As you streamline your business
processes to reduce unnecessary activities the focus can firmly turn to reducing the cost of sale,
ensuring customers have a lifetime value and foster an ethos among employees of continuous
improvement.

3. Have a corporate commitment to the environment

Page 19 of 27
We all have a responsibility to operate our business in a way that considers the effect we might have on
the environment. In many cases behavior towards the environment may have an impact on the people
who look to invest in our business.

4. Deliver exceptional customer service and satisfaction

Retaining customers, then turning them into loyal and life time customers can only be achieved when
our business exceeds the expectations that customers place upon us. In a Frost & Sullivan survey¹ sixty-
eight per cent of businesses say that customer satisfaction and call handling can be improved with the
use of Unified Communications tools.

5. Respond to changing market demands

Modern communication solutions allow companies to access and measure performance data and
market trends quicker than ever before. Immediate access to company performance, product sales and
geographical trends mean you predict change and view it positively. IT tools are also changing to keep
pace with real-time information gathering particularly in understanding how customers view your
business and the products and services you provide.

Page 20 of 27
Applications and Examples of OA
Netflix “Success Example of implementation of OA”

First Steps
Everything started in 1997 when two innovative minds, Reed Hasting and Marc Randolph wanted to
start their own business. They were looking for an opportunity to sell something online and get money
from monthly subscriptions. There were many options to explore, but only one came to light out of
nowhere. 

When Reed Hasting took the Apollo 13 cassette from a local VHS rental store, he did not imagine what
an effect it would have in the future. He ended up paying $40 for the late fee because he did not turn
back the cassette on time. This had a huge impact on his outlook on the business. 

Reed Hasting wanted to open his own rental company that would be operating online. He was working
out at the local gym where he realized that a monthly subscription was way better than individual
renting of the cassette from the rental company. That is when he came up with the idea to make an
online company that would offer movies and shows for monthly subscriptions. 

This was when DVDs replaced cassettes and an ideal time to start a business. 

Marc Randolph was impressed with Amazon’s model of selling things, and he wanted to apply
the similar model of renting and selling shows. It was the birth of Netflix, the biggest online rental

Page 21 of 27
company when it comes to movies and TV shows. It was founded with an initial investment of $2.5
million and it offered DVDs to the customers who wanted to watch certain shows and movies. 

At the time, the DVDs successfully replaced VHS units and Netflix offered secure and safe distribution of
DVDs to the end-users. Netflix was the first online store in the world to offer rentals of DVDs, and
it was the initial step for their future success. 

Overall Business Strategy

Reed Hasting and Marc Randolph wanted to create a brand behind their company. They employed 30
people to take care of the orders and daily tasks. 

When they started with Netflix, they also paid attention to the name of the company. It is a combination
of the words net and flick, which was hugely popular those days. Net referred to the internet
and flix referred to movies. It was a win-win understanding of the brand name. 

They invested huge money in the beginning, and it was the reason why Netflix succeeded in the first few
years of existence. 

In 1999, they introduced their first monthly subscription plan and it was revolutionary in the
industry. They had 925 titles and those movies and shows were carefully selected to meet everyone’s
taste. The movies were sent in the form of DVDs and the monthly fee was paid for every month of using
the services. 

Users could borrow several DVDs and they were free from thinking about shipping charges, due date, or
late fees. It was available to everyone who wanted to subscribe to the monthly paying system. It also
meant secure monthly income for the founders of the platform. They were able to employ more
workers and distribute more titles to the interested users. 

By the year 2000, the Netflix service had more than 300,000 monthly subscribers, which was the first
sign of the enormous success of the platform. 

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Nokia “ Failure Example due to not Implementing OA”:

Before we start the discussion on the factors that have resulted in the failure of Nokia. It is vital to
discuss Nokia as a success story. So, let’s give a quick look at the success of the company and what made
Nokia successful.

Nokia emerged as one of the successful manufacturers of mobile phone in the early days of its success.
In October 1998, Nokia was the best-selling mobile phone brand in the world. By 2007, it had 50% of the
share from the mobile phone market. The young and energetic leadership of the company was the
reason for its wide acceptance in the consumer market. Initially, the new technology, urge to digitalize
and innovation were also amongst some of the reasons for success.

However, over time, the excessive growth rate, loss of agility, and the lack of innovative leadership
resulted in the failure of Nokia as the company on the strategic level.

In the year 2013, the same Nokia Company that was enjoying a 50% share in the market dropped to less
than 5% share of the total market. This was the time when the management, shareholders, and the
customers of the company feared Nokia’s bankruptcy. The bankruptcy was nearly certain, but the
intervention of Microsoft in the market helped the company in getting back to a better position. This
was done by Microsoft in order to save the Windows platform on the smartphone, but in reality, it gave
a new life to the company.

Apart from revamping the smartphones of the company, it also started diversification of the business.
Now, Nokia supplies network infrastructure as a significant part of the overall business. In order to
highlight the factors that resulted in the plight of the company have been widely studied in Nokia’s case
study. Business graduates and even the practical trainees give examples of the things that the company
did wrong to teach the students and trainees of how to do the right things.

 The main Reason for Nokia Failure is:

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Nokia Didn’t adapt to change
The technological advancement in the mobile phone industry was rapid. The traditional phones changed
to smartphones, but Nokia did not change accordingly. Although, it was the initiator of the early
smartphones. Symbian smartphones were introduced in the year 2002, but the company could not
manage with the pace of the changing technology. That is why Nokia failed.

It kept on producing the old version of the phone, whereas the competitors started to pour in the highly
advanced smartphones. These smartphones got affordable for the users, and ultimately, the entire cult
of society shifted to them. Even then, Nokia did not realize what was going on and did not transform its
strategies. Thus, over time, with the shifting of all its target market to a newer and better version of the
phone took place, leaving Nokia far behind the new entrants of the market.

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References
https://www.guidespark.com/blog/organizational-agility-for-business-success/

https://www.getcloudapp.com/blog/organizational-agility/

https://agilemanifesto.org/

https://hrexecutive.com/building-organizational-agility/

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