Agility—the greatest misunderstanding of our time

Banks and financial services providers are facing stormy times. In the past, it often took years to develop, test and launch a new product. Today, in less than a year, completely new banks are emerging that radically adapt to changed customer needs and compete with established players. In stormy times, financial services providers can easily get into difficult waters, but they can also pick up speed very quickly. In other words, the market environment is more volatile than ever before. It changes quickly, frequently and profoundly. At the same time, the information on which decisions are based is often ambiguous or even contradictory. So what does it take to be successful in such a market environment? The key is agility. 

Granted, the term is currently on everyone's lips, and it is often unclear what it is actually supposed to mean. As a consequence, associations with and expectations of agility are not clearly defined either. For us, agility is the ability of individuals, teams and organizations to act fast and flexibly in a customer-centric way.

We are convinced that, even in stormy times, an agile company will have the ability to adapt and to make the right decisions. All others run the risk of going under in the medium term. These are key findings of the current zeb Agile Readiness Study, for which over 200 employees of financial service providers were surveyed.