CIO OPINION show Agile businesses tend to outperform competitors in both revenue growth and innovation cycles.
Impact of AI
As businesses continue to embed agility into their operations, the next frontier for operational leaders is already emerging with AI revolutionising every facet of business – and the COO stands at the frontier of this transformation.
Traditional operational models are no longer sufficient. The modern COO must adopt a new playbook – one that intertwines the precision of AI with the principles of business agility. This shift demands a bold reimagination of workflows, where AI is not merely a tool for efficiency but a core architect of dynamic strategies, innovation and acceleration.
Rather than simply managing change, the COO of today must thrive in it. That means fostering an agile culture that embraces innovation, encourages teams to experiment, and leverages AI to unlock exponential delivery and new opportunities.
As business agility continues to evolve, the COO must become the nexus of strategy and execution, driving not only operational excellence but also organisational resilience. This is not a peripheral shift – it is a fundamental redefinition of leadership.
To build for scale, adaptability and growth, COOs must act now, placing AI at the heart of agility and innovation. The COO of tomorrow starts building today, with AI as the cornerstone.
Value streams
One of the most significant shifts of Agile comes through Value Stream Mapping as a way of realigning teams based on business outcomes rather than traditional functional departments. Instead of isolated groups working on tasks independently, cross-functional teams are formed to own business challenges at an end-to-end level, from client onboarding to product innovation.
It is a shift that recaptures what often gets lost as companies grow. When you are small, everyone is focused on the customer. As organisations scale, that obsession often gets buried under layers of process,
Value Stream Mapping is a way of realigning teams based on business outcomes rather than traditional functional departments.
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