"In today's world of global competition and continuous change, a firm that isn't delighting its clients and turning them into active promoters of its good and services is unlikely to endure". -- Stephen Denning
Just from that quote, it is pretty clear what author and management consultant Stephen Denning the focus of business should be. In reading his book, The Leader's Guide to Radical Management, you will also discover how much of today's management theories and practices miss the mark by focusing on everything but customer delight.
Denning defines 7 principles of what he terms Radical Management which will be very familiar to agile proponents:
- Focus Work on Delighting the Client
- Do Work Through Self-Organizing Teams
- Do Work in Client-Drive Iterations
- Deliver Value to Client Each Iteration
- Be Totally Open About Impediments to Improvement
- Create a Context for Continuous Self-Improvement by the Team Itself
- Communicate Through Interactive Conversations
His book is an interesting confirmation of agile principles coming not from the technical perspective we are used to, but a purely business point of view.
