Over the last few years, agility has become a mantra for many – especially large – organizations. Hampered by bureaucracy, cumbersome processes, traditional hierarchical thinking, and other diseases of the 20th-century management paradigm, they seek ways to redesign their structures and processes to allow for fast and flexible responses to the exponentially accelerating pace of change. Hackathons, swarms, shark-tank formats, tech hubs, incubators – initiatives designed to uproot established business and operating models proliferate, fueled by an ever-inventive consulting industry.

More often than not, these efforts are toothless innovation activism that happens on the fringe, in spaces that are disconnected from the core. Can we even turn large tankers into speed boats? This Round Table takes a closer look at this conundrum.

Bain’s Darrell Rigby, who just released his latest book “Doing Agile Right” and Amazon’s Michael Arena, author of “Adaptive Space” shed light on the agility challenge from two complementing angles. They are joined in conversation by GE Ecosystem Transformation Leader Peter Cavanaugh, who is currently engaged in a major transformational effort at his company.

In the last 20 minutes of this session, Janin Schwartau (Chief learning Officer at Thyssen Krupp) and Mathew Jacob (Transformation leader at Novartis, previously Shell) are joining the Round Table as guests from the audience.