Home>Organisational Agility: 5 Essential Drivers to Support Digital Transformation
31.03.2025
Organisational Agility: 5 Essential Drivers to Support Digital Transformation
This is the first article in a series that explores how digital transformation impacts organisations. Convinced that theory is stronger when illuminated by practice, we asked Romain Liberge, Marketing and Design Director at Maif and a lecturer for our executive programmes in Digital Transformation Strategy and Management, to share his practical insights on organisational agility.
Get Out of Your Lane
Disruptive and a catalyst for innovation, digitalisation is shaking up a traditional corporate structures. Say goodbye to organisational silos and rigid hierarchies. Instead of a top-down model, embrace collaboration across functions. Bring together product managers, technology experts, designers, and data specialists to design, implement, and continuously improve solutions. A testament to the effectiveness of this holistic approach is Romain Liberge’s creation of a Digital Factory at Maif. By bringing together professionals from diverse fields, it has quadrupled the impact of the digital channel, now the primary point of contact between the insurance company and its policy-holders.
Think Design
Placing people at the heart of each stage, Design Thinking’s iterative process, widely nourished by social and human sciences, is a complete break from the traditional V cycle (design, develop, validate). Users participate in the process starting from the moment blockage points have been identified, and they actively search for solutions and test them. By ensuring that targeted users are fully part of the process, design thinking is an excellent way to accelerate innovation and to limit the risk of failure.
Get Your Collaborators On Board
Deploying a digitalisation process bumps into established working methods, which can worry your collaborators. This renders the role of a leader all the more meaningful. Removing objections requires proper team support: identifying the need for skills development and training, setting the new organisational framework, determining indicators of success – your North star – and, as needed, quickly resolving any problems. All of this includes conveying a strategic vision to collaborators through a story that is easily understood and followed.
Dare to Be Transparent
An inseparable corollary of organisational agility, a clear understanding of the challenges of digital transformation requires true democratisation of access to essential information. This means fostering a much stronger culture of written communication and transparency—something that, let’s admit it, does not come naturally to certain cultures. This is precisely why the Executive Master includes an international learning expedition. After all, travelling encourages us to observe different practices!
Take a Step Back
The success of a digital transformation project demands both a command of digital tools and a deep understanding of human dynamics. It calls for highly versatile professionals capable of stepping back to grasp the project in its entirety while also being hands-on with digital processes. In short, it requires full commitment from all the talents driving the organisation—starting with you!
