Remote working can help organizations move at a faster clip as companies tap into new labor pools and specialized remote expertise. (And, yes, agile can be executed remotely.) In the final sprint, it’s a no-brainer to launch the What can realistically be done in 90 days to increase recruiting of additional digital talent and accelerate the organizational drumbeat? Standing up a digital digital upskilling of the entire organization. These factory is largely the best approach right now steps will prepare organizations well for a more because it can be constructed and scaled in three substantive modernization of their application months or less. Many organizations, from banks to landscapes after recovery. Finally, continue to pay mining companies, have accelerated and scaled attention to cybersecurity. Much of the rapid IT work their digital delivery by establishing these internal carried out during the COVID-19 crisis might have factories, with interdisciplinary teams aligned to created new cyberrisk exposures. businesses’ digital priorities. One large global bank, for example, built five such factories to support several locations across the Americas. Increase the organizational drumbeat The current crisis has forced organizations to adapt As previously mentioned, remote working can rapidly to new realities, opening everyone’s eyes also help organizations move at a faster clip as to new, faster ways of working with customers, companies tap into new labor pools and specialized suppliers, and colleagues. Many CEOs wonder remote expertise. (And, yes, agile can be executed what it will take to maintain the quickened remotely.) Remote working can also enable new organizational drumbeat. productivity opportunities, especially for companies with large field forces. One leading provider of Companies that have led the way in adopting residential solar services recently documented flatter, fully agile organizational models have shown record sales using a more remote sales model. substantial improvements in both execution pace and productivity. This has held true during the crisis, In the next 90 days. During the first sprint, identify as we see a direct correlation between precrisis the business areas where digital-execution agile maturity and the time it has taken companies velocity is needed and map out plans for digital to launch a first crisis-related product or service. factories to support them. In parallel, assess where While many companies have at least a few agile remote work models could unleash productivity teams in place, few have successfully scaled to benefits. These two lenses should set the table hundreds of teams staffed with many more “doers” for targeted changes to the operating model. In than “checkers,” which is what’s needed to drive the second 30-day sprint, design the new models the accelerated organizational pace the crisis—and with consideration for staffing level, expertise mix, even the next normal—demands. governance, and operating procedures. Finally, in 18 What now? Ten actions to emerge stronger in the next normal September 2020