Inhibitors to agility

The following factors related to governance are key barriers for enterprises looking to enhance and sustain agility.

Optimization of silos

Companies that are organized around functions usually treat each function as a cost center or a profit center, thereby budgets are allocated per functional area. Organizing vertically, according to functions, carries a huge risk of strategic objectives being broken down into parts, which not only may not add up to the whole, but may end up being misaligned with the strategy. This can happen as each functional area chooses to narrowly interpret the strategic objectives, that is, from the perspective of specific functions. For example, if the strategic objective is to use technology for competitive advantage, the priorities of the technology vision might not align with the priorities of the marketing division. The technology team may consider allocating most of their budget toward replacing an outdated ERP system, but the marketing team...