Organizations must hit performance targets, respond to shifting customer demands, and maintain speed while transforming themselves for a future leap that looks nothing like the past. Traditional project management models, built for linear delivery and functional specialization, are increasingly out of step with what modern markets demand: continuous adaptation, real-time response, and integrated value delivery.
The Dual Challenge: Deliver Today, Evolve for Tomorrow
A powerful reminder of this tension comes from Unilever [1], one of the world’s largest consumer goods companies. Facing rapidly changing customer expectations, Unilever recognized that their traditional project model, built on fixed annual campaigns, was no longer agile enough to compete. Unilever began piloting Agile marketing practices in 2018, starting with their digital and media teams in markets like the UK and India. By 2019–2020, Unilever expanded the model across brands and regions, creating cross-functional marketing pods with sprints and iterative campaigns. This included partnerships with agencies and in-house teams.
The cross-functional pods brought together brand managers, creatives, data analysts, and media buyers. These pods operated in sprints, using customer data and market feedback to test, learn, and adapt campaigns in real time. As a result, Unilever reported faster go-to-market execution, higher engagement rates, and stronger internal collaboration. Their success showed that Agile is a scalable enabler of customer responsiveness and business alignment.
As environments become more complex, volatile, and customer-driven, organizations can’t afford to separate execution from future evolution. This is where Agile and DevOps enter as new operating philosophies.
Agile + DevOps as Business Alignment Engines
Bosch Power Tools Agile + DevOps-Inspired Transformation Timeline [2]
2015-2016: Exploration Phase
Bosch Power Tools began experimenting with Agile principles to accelerate product innovation. Initial pilots focused on increasing collaboration between engineering and marketing, with early signs of success in reducing development cycle time.
2017: Formal Agile Transformation Launch
Bosch launched a structured Agile transformation program within its Power Tools division. Teams were reorganized into cross-functional squads that included product managers, hardware engineers, supply chain leads, and marketing. The goal was to create iterative, customer-driven product development cycles.
2018-2019: Embedding DevOps-Inspired Practices
Bosch adopted several DevOps-inspired concepts such as:
- End-to-end ownership: Teams became accountable from concept through production and feedback.
- Real-time customer feedback: Field testing and live data shaped design iterations.
- Integrated flow: R&D, production, and go-to-market functions collaborated continuously, reducing handoffs and increasing delivery speed.
2020-2021: Recognition and Scaling
The Bosch Power Tools model gained external recognition as a leading example of Agile in manufacturing. Their adaptation of Agile and DevOps-style principles to physical product development demonstrated how traditional industries could drive innovation by focusing on flow, feedback, and team autonomy.
Cross-Functional Teams and the New Operating Model
A contemporary approach requires cross-functional, value-centric teams aligned with outcomes rather than functions. These teams design, build, deploy, and learn together, fostering a faster feedback loop, shared accountability, and a connection between team deliverables and business progress. The team becomes the focal point of value creation, reducing approval cycles and promoting continuous learning through data, experimentation, and customer feedback.
Culture, Mindset, and Resistance Within
Agile threatens deeply ingrained assumptions in many organizations like hierarchical control, exposes inefficiencies, and makes work more transparent. These shifts can trigger discomfort, especially among middle management, whose authority may have been built on predictability, control, and escalation channels.
Successful transformation requires creating psychological safety: an environment where asking questions, voicing uncertainty, or proposing change is encouraged.
ING Netherlands: HR Reinvention Through Agility [3]
In 2015, ING Netherlands encountered a recurring challenge: as the bank rapidly transitioned toward a digital future, one of its core functions – Human Resources (HR) – struggled to adapt. Recruitment cycles were excessively slow, training programs were outdated upon their launch, and internal mobility was hindered by rigid processes and siloed decision-making. While other departments embraced Agile methodologies, HR remained structured around annual plans, linear projects, and cascading approvals.
ING’s HR leadership made a decisive decision: to transform themselves first. They initiated a reorganization of the HR department into squads, each with a specific mandate such as recruitment, learning and development, talent mobility, and people analytics. These squads were cross-functional, comprising HR specialists, data analysts, and digital experts. Each operated in two-week sprints, incorporating regular standups, retrospectives, and demonstration sessions directly adopting Scrum practices employed by the bank’s technology teams.
The transformation encompassed increased the speed of shifting the mindset. For instance, instead of dedicating six months to designing a new onboarding program, the L&D squad launched a prototype after a single sprint and refined it based on feedback from new hires. Recruitment utilized A/B testing to optimize job postings, while data analysts embedded within teams provided real-time insights into engagement and retention.
The transformation was not devoid of challenges. Some HR professionals found the absence of hierarchy disorienting, while others expressed concerns about losing control. However, as squads began to deliver results more swiftly and garnered higher satisfaction from internal stakeholders, cultural resistance gradually dissipated.
Within a year, ING’s HR function had transformed from a back-office support unit into a strategic catalyst for change; empowering the bank’s broader Agile journey and establishing itself as a model for business units across Europe. Leaders must model the mindset shift themselves moving from forcing directions to coaching and mentoring. Cultural transformation is considered the hard core of sustained agility.
Making a successful transformation
Adopting Agile and DevOps is a structured transformation. Here are six key steps to begin the journey:
- Start with a Pilot – Select one business unit or team with a strong appetite for change. Use it to demonstrate value before scaling.
- Form Cross-Functional Teams – Reorganize around customer value streams by blending roles from business, development, and operations.
- Invest in Tools and Automation – Lay the technical foundation with Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery pipelines, and data dashboards.
- Redesign Governance and KPIs – Shift from activity-based reporting to outcome-focused metrics: speed, value, learning, and customer impact.
- Develop Leadership at All Levels – Coach managers to lead with empowerment, not control. Build psychological safety into team culture.
- Scale with Intentional Design – Use frameworks like SAFe or Disciplined Agile to expand based on organizational context.
These steps help balance business urgency with a stable foundation for agility. By tailoring approaches to each team’s context, organizations ensure that agility is adding a core value. The transition to Agile and DevOps requires thoughtful integration of frameworks, experimentation, and continuous refinement.
References:
- AgileSherpas. (2020). Unilever and the rise of Agile marketing. https://www.agilesherpas.com
- McKinsey & Company. (2020). Agility in manufacturing: Lessons from Bosch Power Tools. https://www.mckinsey.com
- Langes, M., Schlatmann, B., & van der Ploeg, P. (2018). ING’s agile transformation. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2018/09/ings-agile-transformation
Head of marketing, keynote speaker, and podcaster, with two decades of leadership experience in the pharma industry in the Middle East and Africa (MEA). He leads strategic marketing & digital transformation at a leading pharma company in MEA, with focus on customer engagement, business model innovation, and organizational agility. Anchored in an academic and professional foundation: he holds an MBA, PMP, a Certified Digital Marketing Professional (cDMP). He is the Platinum Winner at the AVA Digital Awards 2025 for Excellence in Digital Strategy and Implementation.