Title: Agile Leadership 101: Unlearn to succeed

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Agile Leadership 101:
Unlearn to succeed
1
Ashu Suyash
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, CRISIL

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Agenda
• Change – the only constant
• Agility: What, Why and How
• Art of unlearning
• Agile Leadership 101 in 5 steps
• Impact of Agile transformation
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World is transforming at a rapid pace
Duration to reach 50 million users
Airlines Automobiles Telephone Electricity Credit Card Television ATM
68 years 62 years 50 years 46 years 28 years 22 years 18 years
Computer Cell Phone Internet iPods Facebook Twitter Pokémon Go
14 years 12 years 7 years 4 years 3 years 2 years 19 years
The next big thing can change the world in days or hours
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Evolving payments &
currencies
Changing geopolitical
dynamics
Focus on
sustainability
Alternative data
Millennial workforce
& end users
Ecosystem enabling
platforms
AI & machine learning Evolving startup
environment
Multiple trends are shaping businesses
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Continuous evolution
• While change is constant, the pace and rapidity of change has drastically increased
• Change is not just about moving from Point A to Point B. It requires preparedness and flexibility to
navigate
• A change can either be an opportunity or a threat
• In today’s VUCA world, adapting has become a key to surviving
• As Charles Darwin aptly summarizes, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most
intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change”
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Nothing is permanent in this world except change

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Agility in theory Agility in practice
The golden equation: Agility = Adaptability
• Agile in practice: big ambitions and step-by-
step progress
• Agility only comes from within and begins at
the very top
• ‘Agility’ refers to speed, precision and
nimbleness of actions and movements
• In business, we mean it as ability and
flexibility to change in a swift and decisive
manner
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Agility is essential for survival and success of an organization

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Why Agile?
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Business can never be run on scripted lines
Organisations are evolving into a more dynamic leadership model
Traditional businesses do not always have the tools to react quickly
Traditional leadership stifles creativity and impairs managerial effectiveness
Gone are the times when a CEO was not judged just on revenue and profit
The most dangerous phrase in language is “We've always done it this way”

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How Agile?
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The shift begins with learning the art of unlearning
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“The illiterate of the future are not those who can’t read or write but those who cannot learn,
unlearn and relearn.” – Alvin Toffler
Learn
Unlearn
Relearn
Traditional thinking
• Firefighting
• Solving problems for team
• Blaming technology
• Using performance review
as feedback
• Adhering to process
Agile thinking
• Planning up-front
• Fail fast; learn fast
• Working with technology
• Using regular performance
to improve
• Optimizing the process

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The pivotal pillars: Collaboration and empowerment
• Teams now look beyond the resume,
numbers and statistics and turn their
attention towards the X-factor
• Researches in the field of psychology
indicate that an empowered team
increases the cognitive ability of its
members and controlled team has the
opposite effect
• Collaboration lies at the heart of Agile –
the cross-functionality of an agile team is
borne out of team work
• Agile distinguishes team work from
working together
• An agile leader has to ensure a platform
for consensus-driven decisions,
collaborative culture and task ownership
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Collaboration Empowerment

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Agile Leadership 101 in 5 steps
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Setting up a True North strategy
Setting targets for every stages
Humble management as opposed to micromanagement
Focus on individual effectiveness
Driving continuous improvement
"Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality."

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The impact of Agile Leadership
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Case studies

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Case study 1: Amazon (1/2)
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• “There are many ways to center a business. You can be competitor focused, you can be product focused,
you can be technology focused, you can be business model focused, and there are more. But in my view,
obsessive customer focus is by far the most protective of Day 1 vitality. Why?
• There are many advantages to a customer-centric approach, but here’s the big one: customers are always
beautifully, wonderfully dissatisfied, even when they report being happy and business is great. Even when
they don’t yet know it, customers want something better, and your desire to delight customers will drive
you to invent on their behalf.”
Jeff Bezos
Customer focus: it’s how we can effectively compete!

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Case study 1: Amazon (2/2)
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• Putting customer needs at the
core
• Focus on customer journeys
and improving the internal
processes
• Combine digital technologies &
operations capabilities
• Optimization then automation
• Using process redesign, and
advanced analytics
• Shift from siloes to integrated
teams partnering around
customer-centric improvements
• Operating with urgency and
pace
Customer Obsession
Integrating new
technologies
Agile, cross-functional,
mission-focused teams
… but Amazon doesn’t happen by customer focus alone …

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Case study 2: Best Buy
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Pre-Agile Leadership
• Brick-and-mortar retailer
• Rapid decline in the midst of Amazon’s
growth
• Share price close to $10 in 2011
Post-Agile Leadership
• Redesigning the strategy
• Customer-focus and employee
accountability
• Share price more than $90 in 2019

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Ratings
Public issue
S&P acquires
9.68% in CRISIL
S&P acquires
majority stake in
CRISIL
Acquired
Pipal
Research
Acquired
Pragmatix
1987 2000 2010
Infrastructure
Advisory
Acquired
Infac
Acquired
Irevna
Acquired
Coalition
Analytics
Global Research &
Analytics
19941993 1997 2003 2005 2012 20181999
Risk
Solutions
Research
1991
SME Ratings
2008 2013
Sold
Economatters
Sold stake in India Index
Services and Products
Acquired
Economatters
2019
Acquired
Greenwich
Associates
Case study 3: CRISIL (1/2)
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Case study 3: CRISIL (2/2)
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Focus on Customer – to align to their needs
Meet Daily – to foster rapid communication
Visualize Work – to promote transparency
Measure Results – to achieve success
Balance Capacity – to make work sustainable
Solve Problems – to improve continuously
Embrace Coaching – to develop our people
Embrace
Coaching
Focus on
Customer
Measure
Results
Meet
Daily
Visualize
Work
Solve
Problems
Balance
Capacity
CRISIL embraces 7 key behaviors, each behavior supporting an Agile goal
Embrace
Coaching
Focus on
Customer
Measure
Results
Meet
Daily
Visualize
Work
Solve
Problems
Balance
Capacity

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Parting thought
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Agile leadership is the key to unlock potential and rapid growth in an organization
Agile environment introduces rapid progress and innovation to customer facing businesses
However, to achieve excellence, Agile should not stop with contributing just to increasing
revenues and reducing costs
Agile leadership should transform the company by enabling proactive decision-making
The key to success is in implementation
“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often”

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Thank you
Ashu Suyash
Managing Director & CEO
CRISIL
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