Os Segredos da Gestão Ágil - João Kepler & Thiago Oliveira

Did you know that 75% of startups do not survive their first year of life? Or that, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), more than 60% of startups close their doors after five years of opening?

With the constant changes in the business market due to the 4th Industrial Revolution and a new economy, companies needed to implement more agile methods to survive and compete in this new market.

Agile business management is what sustains an enterprise, companies that resist change or are too slow to adapt end up not achieving success and die before they have a chance to become valuable.

Therefore, this summary is the perfect formula for companies that want to succeed! Ready to discover the secrets of agile management?

About the book "Os Segredos da Gestão Ágil"

The book "Os segredos da gestão ágil por trás das empresas valiosas", in free translation "The Secrets of Agile Management Behind Valuable Companies", was written as a concise guide for entrepreneurs who want to learn about agile management.

Originally published in 2019, the book has 192 pages that have been divided into 12 chapters, as well as featuring a preface written by Jorge Paulo Lemann.

About the authors João Kepler & Thiago Oliveira

João Kepler is an entrepreneur known for spreading innovative digital ideas and best practices in business, he is also known as one of the most attuned lecturers to innovation and digital convergence in Brazil.

He was awarded as the best angel investor in Brazil by Startup Awards, is the Director of Dempi and Acelera at FIESP, National Director of Startups at ASSESPRO, partner and board member at ACE; and author and co-author of five books, including the best-seller "Smart Money".

Thiago Oliveira is a founding partner of the company IS Logística, currently IS Entrega, a company created in 2002 and sold in 2016 to an investment fund.

He is also a partner in companies such as Proseftur Assessoria em Comércio Exterior and a consulting partner at ACE (Latin America's largest startup accelerator).

To whom is this book indicated?

This summary is ideal for entrepreneurs and traditional business people who wish to expand their understanding of the new forms of management and ways to transform their businesses.

It is also recommended for those who want to start their business by putting agile management into practice.

Main ideas of the book "Os Segredos da Gestão Ágil"

• A company with an excellent management may not be the one that grows faster, but the one that will grow more and better in the medium term;
• Value your team: Successful people generate successful companies;
• A company without management is like a house without foundation;
• Knowledge is power;
• Invest in your company's intellectual capital;
• Plan your business well, but be open to changes;
• Always be very realistic when making decisions.

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First Secret: A good Stewardship needs Management!

Early in the book, the author makes the following analogy: "We can define that management is to the entrepreneur as the sewer is to the politician.".

Just as politicians prefer to invest in bridges and viaducts because they are visible achievements, many entrepreneurs prioritize things like accelerated growth.

However, just as a poorly made sewer can cause serious problems for people, the absence of management can destroy an entrepreneur.

A company without management is like a house without a foundation, so you need to pay attention to the management tripod that will promote good management for your company.

It consists of:

1. People Management;
2. Knowledge Management;
3. Financial Management.

People Management: Successful people generate successful companies

It is not for nothing that the employers are called this, because without them employing their collaboration, dedication, and effort no company would be successful. The leader may be the shepherd who guides the flock, but without the sheep there would be no shepherd.

Therefore, People Management is one of the pillars of any enterprise and the productivity, health, and satisfaction of the team must be a constant focus of attention.

The implementation of the Human Resources department is fundamental to guarantee your business corporate culture 's existence and maintenance, also and its organizational structure.

Furthermore, this department is also able to bring excellent tools to help with team management and reward processes, such as gamification.

However, People Management goes beyond HR. In agile practices, work teams called squads have emerged - which alludes to the military concept of squads, small groups of soldiers with different specialties.

They are multidisciplinary teams, agile, and quickier to find solutions.

Knowledge Management

Do you know the difference between data, information, and knowledge?

Data are loose records without analysis, information is the analysis of that data, and knowledge is the information processed and transformed into experience by the individual.

For example, "21°C" is data, "21°C in Rio de Janeiro" is information, and "21°C in Rio de Janeiro is considered cold" would be knowledge.

Knowledge Management can be seen as the process by which wealth is generated from a company's knowledge or intellectual capital.

In other words, it uses the "applied information" that has been compiled by the company and transforms it into concrete results for the enterprise.

Given we are living in the Information Age, a company with great intellectual capital is more likely to become valuable.

Financial Management

Not all entrepreneurs have the necessary financial knowledge to perform the company's financial management. Therefore, the authors point out topics that every manager should keep in mind when dealing with finances:

• Mind your expenses;
• Know your profit margin;
• Calculate your contribution margin;
• Control your cash flow;
• Have working capital;
• Generate revenue;
• Set financial indicators;
• Calculate the break-even point;
• Professionalize the management of the business.

In Financial Management, there is also the need to use the 4 C's which are:

1. Control: By exercising control you can analyze the company's policies, the objectives and goals, its accounting data and the team;
2. Controllership: It is responsible for modeling, building, and maintaining the organization's data systems and management models;
3. Controller: An employee responsible for monitoring fiscal accounting, designing budgets, business forecasts and projects, etc;
4. Compliance: This is corporate governance in a more specific way.

Second Secret: Create a business plan, but be open to innovation!

Managing a company is not easy, even less so when you don't have a plan for it.

The ideal management would be one where a foolproof plan is created and followed to the letter, but we know that this is impossible. Therefore, the closest to the ideal we have is the Business Plan (BP).

But why create a Business Plan? Because it allows you to put together a compilation of information and analysis that connects all areas of the company and helps to increase the chances of the company's success.

However, your BP should not be static. Be open to innovation!

Innovation and Design Thinking

Design Thinking is a methodology that facilitates the creation of ideas, at the same time that potentiates their concretization in projects and solutions.

In other words, it provides an innovation process in the company based on empathy and experimentation.

Thus, we are able to carry out the stages of immersion, ideation, prototyping, and realization of ideas capable of boosting the company's growth.

Third Secret: Be lean and agile!

Although the Business Plan is important, there is a belief that putting together a long document with revenue projects, profit, and the cash flow is not aligned with the speed and the shape of modern business models.

With this in mind, you will see two agile methodologies to apply in your business:

1. Lean;
2. Agile.

Lean Framework

Lean Thinking proposes the adoption of less risky processes in a business, this framework aims to identify and eliminate waste.

It also seeks experimentation rather than a very detailed plan, the use of customer reactions and feedback rather than intuition, and adaptive, interactive design as opposed to static, ready-made design.

It ends up being a method that can result in fewer failures than traditional ones.

Agile Framework

It is a framework that groups a set of different practices, being adopted in enterprises from several other areas because it uses an interactive approach, with short steps for planning and development.

Within the Agile philosophy, there are certain frameworks - sets of techniques, tools, or pre-defined concepts - that are widely used to put into practice and manage agile development.

One of them is the so-called Scrum, a dynamic way of working widely used to streamline processes.

4th Secret: You need to know how to adapt to different scenarios!

Product-Market Fit (PMF) is the degree to which a product satisfies a strong market demand.

More than being inserted in a good market, the company needs to ensure the business' existence in this market. Therefore, everything that the company does must be thought out with the customer in mind.

However, we know that not everything is a bed of roses, and many times companies get into a crisis even if they follow all the management tips and use the right tools.

If your business is going downhill it means that you have reached the turnaround moment - it can be defined as the period between the decline in financial performance and the recovery in business performance and corporate renewal.

The turnaround is the time when you need to adapt your business, reassess your actions, and build agile turnaround strategies.

Besides the company's restructuring, two other moments are crucial:

1. The time to exit: Know the right moment to exit the business, which must be strategic, not emotional. Study the sales scenarios well before signing a deal;
2. The time for expansion: You must coldly analyze the market and be realistic about growth possibilities.

Now you have all the secrets to speeding up your business!

What do other authors say about it?

In the book "Reinventing Organizations", Frederic Laloux points out that many companies allow their employees to be protagonists and participate more actively in the company's decision making.

In the best-seller "Good to Great", renowned author Jim Collins also addresses the role of the right people in the right places. He believes that successful people create successful companies.

Finally, Eric Ries in "The Lean Startup", believes that continuous innovation is the "growth engine" that ensures the survival of companies in the new modern business world.

Okay, but how can I apply this to my life?

• Always be up to date with market innovations;
• Invest in good management and methodologies that make sense for your company;
• Always seek innovation;
• Value your team and be an innovative leader;
• Less is more: prioritize what is really important.

Did you like this summary of the book "Os Segredos da Gestão Ágil"?

We hope you enjoyed our summary and can use these tips in your company. Leave your opinion in the comments, your feedback is very important to us!

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