Principles of Operational Agility: A Case Study of a Swiss Telecommunication Company

Management research has begun to investigate operational agility, the capability of organizations to adapt rapidly and incrementally in response to changing conditions. The purpose of this study is to bridge the discrete research areas of agile development and agile manufacturing, which exist within literature on operational agility, and to derive the principles of operational agility itself. It therefore combines previous research with evidence from an explorative single case study. The study identifies eight principles of operational agility which may guide practitioners to form organizations that can adapt rapidly. By deriving these principles, this case study is one of the first academic contributions to elaborate on an operating model that aims for agility on both an enterprise and business unit level. Overall, our findings enhance the understanding of operational agility, while revealing new insights into the transformation process of a leading agile organization.