A large global company with over 25,000 employees across 40 countries traditionally focused on executing a top-down strategy to avoid failures. However, this often led to missing changes in the world and strategies failing miserably. A better approach is for top management to set a high-level direction and vision while empowering teams to develop incremental strategies using a portfolio approach and gated process. This allows for learning from tactical failures while minimizing costly strategic failures.

1. *
“Running an Agile Fortune 500 Company”
Aditya Yadav, aditya.yadav@gmail.com
in.linkedin.com/in/adityayadav76

2. * A Typical Global Company
* Fortune 500/1000
* 200 Divisions
* 40 Countries
* 25000 Employees
*

3. *
@ Acme Inc.

4. * Original Question “How do we go about
executing so that we avoid absolutely any
Failures?”
* The Correct Question - “Maybe we should
rethink the entire concept of Failure and
Strategy. And figure out How do we create a
Successful Organization?”
*

5. *
And The Philosophy Behind The Answer

6. * The Top Management Creates a „Great‟
Strategy
* Goals, Objectives and Targets are assigned
down the Organization…
* Now all that everyone needs to do is „Execute‟
on it
*

7. * Everyone does Everything to „Avoid‟ Failure
* Everyone forgets the Strategy and Assumptions
* Everyone Sticks to Their Goals, Objectives and
Targets
* Everyone Follows the Plan
* Needless to say the World Changes
* And everything Fails „Miserably‟
*

8. *

9. * The Top Management sets the „Direction‟ for
the Organization and the „Direction‟ for every
Division
* There is an absolutely MinimalStrategy, just
enough for everyone to understand what‟s the
Vision and how everyone‟s Directions Integrate
* Some essential Risk and Monetary analysis is
also done
*

10. * Every Team starts from What they Know and What they Have,
and Build Upon It
* They make some Assumptions
* They make a portfolio of Incremental and Radical Business
Decisions
* They use a Gated Funnel for their Business Strategies and
Operational Tactics
* The Progress is Incremental
* The Progress is Iterative
* Fail Fast and minimize Costly Failures
* Gated Funnel is used to manage The Portfolio, Costs and
Risks
*

11. * Tactical Failure is Yet Another Learning
* There is No Penalty for Failure, If they Fail they go
back to Act 1: Scene 2. People succeed and fail and
learn all the time.
* Contrary to What One Might Think, there is no
Chance of Strategic Failure unless everyone puts All
Their Eggs In One Basket, and
* Violates the Incremental and Iterative processes
* And Violates the Portfolio Approach
* And Violates the Gated Funnel Approach
*

12. * Pre Renaissance
* You are worried about Failure Against „The‟ Plan
* And you would end up with „Failure‟ even with 100% Plan
Compliance
* Everyone is „Worried‟ about „Failure‟.
* The Drama was called „Strategy By Design‟
* Post Renaissance
* It‟s a Global Learning Organization
* Learning at the Grass Roots works Great with G-Localization
* Ground Experts are in the best position to take the Decisions
* „Failure‟ and „Learning‟ is the Norm!
* The Drama was called „Emergent Strategy‟
*

13. Aditya!!!
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