Coming from a software background, I often make comparisons between the process of creating software and the process of creating new business ideas. One of the original visions of software creation was a waterfall pattern, where activities like planning, designing, developing, etc are done in sequential order with the expectation of a completed final product at the end. Time has shown that in most cases this model is flawed and more agile techniques have emerged that focus on quick iterations and assume a degree of change from the original vision. There certainly seems to be a similar shift occurring in business today. While many businesses continue with traditional product development cycles, more companies are adopting an agile model that allows them to quickly release product versions and then evaluate and tweak as needed. There are obvious examples in the software world such as Twitter or even Google which release frequent (occasionally unstable) updates to their software.
3D Printing allows custom manufacturing or rapid prototyping
But there seems to be an agile trend in businesses outside the software world. Lulu lets users create one-off books or cater to niche areas without a huge investment. Ponoko and other similar services use techniques like laser cutting and 3D printing to bypass the cost of acquiring factory space and equipment or sending manufacturing offshore. Zazzle among others make creating custom clothing extremely simple.
There may be some aspects of business that might run contrary to agile principles: human resource management comes to mind. Nevertheless, I think an agile strategy is essential in our current business environment. In the future I’d like to discuss and document ideas that can help make all aspects of starting and running a business become more agile – enabling products and services that are more closely matched to the needs of consumers and benefiting both sides.
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