Those who are agile and collaborative stay relevant

Execution often falls short
Major transitions demand enormous investments in technology. In doing so, organizations first struggle with the question of what choices to make –- there are, after all, many technologies and IT solutions on the market. And the rapidly developing potential of AI too is enormous. A second challenge is how to optimally organize themselves to make the huge investments in technology and IT pay off.
An important key lies in agile working with teams that focus on results. The premise is that employees take ownership and responsibility for their part of the task at hand. Because they have specialized and local knowledge, they can add meaningful value to the process.
The agility this provides ensures that innovation actually comes to fruition. There is often no lack of innovation within organizations, but too often good ideas remain exactly that, good ideas, and the execution falls short.
This requires a different leadership style. Leaders in agile organizations do not take a controlling role, but rather a coaching and connecting role. They formulate goals together with the team and create space to experiment and learn. Leaders must dare to make choices and be able to focus on concrete results instead of processes. An important factor is the generational differences within the team. Young people are often very strong in terms of content. The challenge for an experienced leader is to not inhibit their knowledge and innovative ideas. As senior professional, be open to their knowledge and reflect rather on how to fill out the role as leader in an innovative way.

Leave your ego at the door
In addition to agility, collaboration is another prerequisite for a successful transition within a sector. For many organizations, the natural reflex is to solve issues themselves or to hire in professionals to do so. This is not always the optimal strategy. A good motto is to carefully assess the expertise available on the market and to make use of it. That is a matter of leaving your own ego at the door. It takes courage to be vulnerable and to recognize and acknowledge the strength of others.
Different partners bring different knowledge and experience. Some excel in infrastructure, for example, while others have extensive expertise in the field of data platforms and applications. In recent years, progress has been made in the energy sector. Energy companies, grid operators and other players involved are collaborating to a growing extent to help the Netherlands move forward with energy supply. Years ago, it was very unusual for consumers to be able to choose their own energy supplier. That has now become standard.
It took considerable behind the scenes efforts, especially in data exchange, to realize this change. Systems had to be set up in such a way that consumers could switch seamlessly, without noticing the shift. At the same time, energy suppliers remained mutually responsible for the correct settlement of data and costs.
While a few years ago it was unthinkable for competitors to work together, it is now necessary, and also fun. Organizations are increasingly combining their knowledge and strengths during co-creation sessions. In these, customers, technology partners and domain experts work together on innovative solutions for complex and pressing issues.

Make an issue manageable
However, implementation power and the focus on results remain a concern.
Energy companies still find it difficult to manage large, complex programs. There are various factors in the ecosystem partners have no influence on. Examples include changing legislation and regulations, such as for the back-feeding of energy. Neither can much be done in the short term about the physical infrastructure - laying extra cables and pipes require time and money. Where partners can contribute is with the development of smarter solutions, solving issues such as how to make the load on the network more predictable. An agile approach can be of assistance. It is important to make an issue manageable, set clear frameworks and involve partners who complement each other.
Interestingly, with mobility, for example, congestion plays out in a similar way. We experience physical congestion on both road and rail. Here too, the question is how to deal with the assets. And how to use the available data to manage it smarter and more efficiently. The many possibilities technology, sensors and prediction models offer here, can be taken advantage of in co-creation sessions.
An example of how co-creation can lead to innovation in infrastructure is the five-day High5 Hackathon in which Rijkswaterstaat, Microsoft, CGI and Esri (a specialist in geographic information systems) took on the challenge of using AI to get a grip on the renovation of hundreds of bridges. A vast amount of information about these bridges is scattered across various systems and documents. By working together and innovating, the teams developed smart tools to extract crucial data from archives, documents and old drawings within seconds.

Cross-sectoral inspiration as an accelerator
There is much to learn from other sectors. Successful cases can provide inspiration and acceleration. For example, the energy sector can learn from the high-tech manufacturing industry when it comes to the integration of IT (information technology), OT (operational technology) and cybersecurity. The financial sector, on the other hand, is leading the way when it comes to customer interaction, data-driven decision-making or workflow automation. Smartly bringing in the right partners and best practices from other industries creates cross-pollination. However, this requires a culture of curiosity, boldness and innovation – precisely the core values ​​ characterizing agile organizations.

Scaling up with knowledge from across the border
The task of accelerating a transition is often so extensive that it is not feasible to deploy only local people. This necessitated organizations to increasingly look beyond their own borders. In various sectors, expertise from Portugal, Poland, the Czech Republic and India, among others, has already been used for some time. This allows organizations to scale up quickly, with high-quality knowledge. Or, conversely, allows them to downsize if the strategy change. Here too agility is key. It requires daring to let go of traditional structures and dealing flexibly with language, culture and colleagues working remotely.
In (semi) government and the energy sector, organizations are still somewhat reluctant. But the scale and complexity of the challenges force also them to look beyond their own organization and national borders.

Data sovereignty, a pertinent issue
Given recent geopolitical developments, increasing agility is essential. Many companies are concerned with their data sovereignty. Where does my data reside? Who has access to it? And how dependent are we on American tech giants such as Google, Amazon and Microsoft? There is no mass migration toward other platforms yet, but companies do want to know how they can protect themselves, their IT infrastructure and data and reduce their dependence.
The geopolitical uncertainty may also affect investment choices. Organizations need to cut back on operations to afford other investments, such as in AI and cybersecurity.
In short, agility and collaboration are needed more than ever. In a time of rapid change, organizations are forced to constantly adapt to societal challenges, new market conditions and different customer needs. Those who are agile, remain relevant.

This essay was published in Management Scope 05 2025.