Table of Content
Systems Are the Asset. Or Are They?
The Brutal Wake-Up Call of Artificial Intelligence
The Playbook: How to Stop Moving Slow
1. Shorten Meetings
2. Kill the “One Manager Above” Rule
3. Allow Multiple Channels for Ideas
4. Rethink Security and Privacy (with Public Data)
5. Slice Approval Processes
6. Deliver Small Results First
Simplicity Is the New Sophistication
Final Thought
Let’s be honest. Enterprises are known for being powerful and structured, but achieving true enterprise agility often feels out of reach. They are also known for being slow. In today’s business landscape, where agility defines market leaders, slowness is more than just a frustration; it’s a significant liability. There’s a real cost of inaction when the world is moving at the pace of AI.
Startups are thriving, especially in this new wave of artificial intelligence. They move fast, test fast, fail fast, and win fast. Meanwhile, many enterprises find themselves tangled in micro-management, endless approval processes, duplicated work, and too many “stakeholders” in decisions that have little to do with real growth. The result is that enterprises often lose the very advantage they’re supposed to have: scale.
Systems Are the Asset. Or Are They?
The biggest strength of an enterprise should be its systems. These are the complex structures built over years to make thousands of people collaborate toward a common goal. These systems, when designed well, create stability and predictability.
But let’s be honest again: how often do these systems actually enable speed and innovation? How often do they just get in the way? If your systems exist to slow down decisions, to over-protect public information, or to bury good ideas under layers of management, then they have become anchors.
This issue is often rooted in what we can call “organizational debt.” Similar to technical debt, where outdated technology slows down development, organizational debt is the accumulation of convoluted processes and a “this is how we’ve always done it” culture. This debt is the primary obstacle to improving your enterprise agility. Your old CRM or the reporting process that takes three weeks are symptoms of a deeper problem holding you back.
The Brutal Wake-Up Call of Artificial Intelligence
AI is putting a spotlight on inefficiency everywhere. Its arrival is a mirror held up to how slow and complicated we’ve made our work. This isn’t just about automation; it’s a fundamental challenge to the old way of doing business.
Think about it: if a machine can cut a 3-hour process into 3 minutes, what does that say about the value we place on process-oriented roles? What does it say about our education systems that prepare people for tasks that AI can now automate?
AI is reminding us of something fundamental: ideas matter more than processes. Execution still matters, of course, but when processes can be streamlined or cut entirely, the differentiator becomes who can think differently. AI automates tasks, not entire jobs. It handles the repetitive, data-heavy work, which frees up your team for strategic thinking and creativity. This is the shift that enterprises must embrace: empowering people by automating processes.
That’s why the enterprises that will survive this shift are the ones that can combine structure with speed, scale with creativity, and legacy with reinvention.
The Playbook: How to Stop Moving Slow
I’ve worked with enterprises across industries, from tech to retail, from manufacturing to SaaS. The same patterns of slowness repeat, regardless of the company’s size or budget. The good news is that these are habits, and they can be broken with intentional changes.
1. Shorten Meetings
Most meetings are rituals, not necessities. If a meeting doesn’t create a decision or a clear next step, it’s wasted time. The goal should be to make decisions, not just to “sync up.”
• How to do it: Implement a “decision-on-the-agenda” rule. If an invitation doesn’t state the specific decision to be made, the meeting should be questioned or canceled. Use tools like Fireflies.ai or Otter.ai to automatically transcribe and summarize meetings, ensuring that action items are captured and distributed without manual effort. This creates accountability and saves countless hours.
2. Kill the “One Manager Above” Rule
If every idea needs to climb up the ladder before being heard, you’ve already killed speed and morale. Innovation rarely happens when it’s forced through a rigid hierarchy.
• How to do it: Create small, autonomous “innovation pods” or project teams with a modest, pre-approved budget. Give them the freedom to test ideas on a small scale without needing multiple levels of sign-off. AI allows for micro-experiments at almost no cost. Your job as a leader is to clear the path, not to be a gatekeeper.
3. Allow Multiple Channels for Ideas
Yes, you have your official tech stack and submission processes. But innovation rarely fits neatly into predefined boxes. A great idea can be lost because the format for sharing it was too rigid.
• How to do it: Encourage and accept ideas in whatever format they come: voice notes, sketches on a whiteboard, quick video demos made with Loom, or even AI-generated prototypes. The value is in the idea itself. By being flexible, you signal to your team that you prioritize creativity over conformity.
4. Rethink Security and Privacy (with Public Data)
Enterprises often hide behind “security” and “privacy” as excuses for not exploring new solutions. Of course, sensitive customer and company data must be protected rigorously. But if data is public, it’s meant to be used.
• How to do it: Create a clear and simple policy that differentiates between sensitive internal data and public data. Give your teams a green light to use public information, open-source tools, and new platforms for research and testing. Stop letting ambiguity create unnecessary bottlenecks.
5. Slice Approval Processes
Approval cycles that take weeks or months are momentum killers. They drain energy and make your company irrelevant before a project even starts.
• How to do it: Adopt a “slice and ship” mentality. Break down massive, year-long projects into small, testable parts with two-week sprints. Instead of asking for approval on an entire website redesign, ask for approval on just the homepage mockup. Deliver that small piece of value, learn from it, and then move to the next slice.
6. Deliver Small Results First
Stop waiting for the “perfect” launch. Enterprises love perfection, but markets reward relevance and speed. By the time your perfect product is ready, the market may have already moved on.
• How to do it: Embrace a “Minimum Viable Progress” mindset. Release something small, even if it’s just to an internal group of users. Learn from real-world feedback and scale what works. AI gives you the ability to prototype and test in days. Use that speed to your advantage.
Simplicity Is the New Sophistication
The future of business is about removing complexity. We are moving into an era where work should feel lighter, faster, and more human. Systems should exist to support people, and AI should exist to automate the complex work in the background, making our jobs simpler.
This aligns with lean principles, where the goal is to eliminate waste: wasted time, wasted meetings, and wasted human potential. When you achieve this, your enterprise can move with the agility of a startup without losing the resilience of its structure.
Final Thought
Being an enterprise should be an advantage. You have resources, brand equity, and reach. But those things only matter if you can also move. A true sense of enterprise agility is the key to unlocking that advantage. AI is not waiting for you. Customers are not waiting for you. Startups are not waiting for you.
So the real question is: why are you waiting?
If any of this felt painfully familiar, maybe we should talk. We’re obsessed with using AI to make businesses move faster and smarter. We can have a real conversation about the challenges you’re facing, without a sales pitch or buzzwords.
Continue Your Journey to Enterprise Agility
Achieving true enterprise agility is a continuous process, not a one-time fix. As you begin implementing these changes, you’ll uncover new opportunities for optimisation.
If you are interested in having such talks and exchange informations with Founders and other entrepreneurs, join my community at: https://founders.checkgrow.com/
To help you further on the path to enterprise agility, we’ve covered related topics with more practical advice and tools.
Explore these popular resources to learn more:
