Amazon is Agile, Best Buy is not

I am often asked about the real world effects of going Agile. Managers of legacy companies have said to me “it’s just too hard. Why don’t we just hire a few more programmers? I know it’s less efficient than this Agile you talk about. Our customer service is excellent. They won’t know or care whether we are an Agile firm or not.”

Oh, if that were the case. Getting correct software out the door more quickly is Agile Development. An Agile Organization is something else. You see Agile is all about eliciting and acting on customer feedback. Give the customer what they want when they want it. Legacy companies loose touch with their customers over time. Silos develop to support those great products and services that made the company grow. Eventually Silos become entities of their own, with their own survival instincts, ways of getting funding and keeping their own employees. The enterprise becomes their only constituents. The customer doesn’t directly pay their bill.

Here is an example. To log into Best Buy you need a password. You need it often, actually, as you are automatically logged out after a brief period for “your safety”. To log back in you need to remember your password because the password managers we all use on our iPhones, iPads, Android devices and computers don’t work on the Best Buy website “for our safety” or on the Best Buy apps.

It would be simple enough if we could use the default password we all have for things like AAA or our local newspaper. But, not with Best Buy. You see the IT Silo of Best Buy has decided (it is doubtful they have ever met a customer) that for “our safety” the password has to have a special character, a number, a capitol letter and be of a certain length. That doesn’t fit with the password I use where my “safety” isn’t a concern.

If you do manage to log onto Best Buy to purchase something you could buy with one click on Amazon, and didn’t get logged out while you thought about it, you get to enter your credit card information, again. Oh, and that code and expiration, where is my wallet now? Do you think Best Buy, as an organization, carefully weighed the value of their IT department’s “security” concerns versus the millions in lost sales caused when customers gave up trying to log in before opening the Amazon app? This oversight by Best Buy represents a failure within a failure. Unless Best Buy creates processes to learn from their mistakes, they will go the way of Circuit City.

In the interest of full disclosure I do like Best Buy. They are a great store with helpful sales people. Whenever possible I like to shop there. I am also kindly disposed to buy from their website. I have done it a few times both to have shipped and arrange for in store pickup. After many tries I came to a conclusion. It is easier for me to drive to Best Buy to see if they have what I want than to use their primitive search functions. I’d rather drive than use their website. Except when I simply use Amazon. How sad.

Best Buy, I do hope you are listening. Heaven knows your IT department isn’t. They are more concerned with budgets and head counts than helping to sell products and services.

You see, being Agile does make a difference. At some point, it means the difference between prospering and going out of business. Do you hear this former Eastman Kodak employees and shareholders? I will tell their story another day.

Richard Ellis PMP PRM CSM SSGB

https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/richardellis86