FLEXIBLE AND AGILE
“I can best give you an idea of the necessity that ING saw at the time. As a project manager I have been involved in the development of financial products. In the “old-fashioned” way, such a period of devising and realizing, for example, a new mortgage took far too long, because various departments, and therefore far too many people, were involved. Being able to act faster was no longer a wish, but a necessity. ING realized that if it did not dare to transition, and did not follow an example from hypermodern companies like Spotify, it would lose a battle in various areas as an organisation. Not only against competitors, but also in relation to own talent. Other banks no longer turned out to be the main competitors, but tech companies that have data. Theoretically, a large data organization could start a bank. So things changed course radically and ING officially became an IT company with a banking license. Talented employees, with the intrinsic motivation of an entrepreneur, no longer received only appreciation via the monthly salary, but were given responsibility for their tasks in accordance with the Agile philosophy. In this way, a relatively slow company became a flexible, agile organization in no-time. As an Agile pioneer, ING has gained an excellent reputation. Thanks to their new “mindset”, ING has won this battle for the competition. And what applies to ING also applies elsewhere.