PMI Agile Alliance has released the Manifesto for Enterprise Agility,, a leadership guide for organisations facing frequent disruption and rising pressure to reinvent.
PMI global C-suite research shows that reinvention is the norm: 93% of senior executives say they must rethink and challenge assumptions of their operating models or business approaches at least every five years, and nearly 65% say they are doing so every two years or faster. The challenge is not recognising change and the need to adapt faster; it’s converting strategy into action. That strategy-execution gap is where enterprise agility becomes essential – but where ambition still outpaces reality. While 85% of C-suite executives recognise enterprise agility as critical and very important, 65% admit they implemented it to a limited extent or not at all.
“Most organisations don’t struggle with strategy; they struggle with turning strategy into coordinated action. Enterprise agility is about building organisations that can adapt quickly without losing alignment, so leaders can respond to disruption while keeping their people and priorities focused on delivering value,” says George Asamani, MD, Project Management Institute, Sub-Saharan Africa.
Launched in the 25th anniversary year of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, the Manifesto for Enterprise Agility moves agility beyond teams and projects to the entire enterprise, including leadership behaviour, operating models, governance, and culture. Rather than prescribing a framework, the Manifesto focuses on how leaders build and run the system for enterprise-level agility – governing with guardrails instead of gatekeepers, funding intent instead of activity, and moving authority closer to where value is created.
The Manifesto is anchored in four values:
- Clear purpose realised through adaptive plans: Guiding with purpose and adjusting along the way outweighs over-planning and the illusion of control.
- Shared enterprise outcomes over functional optimisation: Prioritising long-term goals and cross-enterprise collaboration outweighs optimising for short-term, departmental KPIs.
- Continuous reinvention over preservation: Boldly challenging established operating models and innovation outweighs structural inertia and preservation of the status quo.
- Human-centricity amidst change: Continuous learning, developing resilience, enabling autonomy, and leading with empathy and trust outweigh leading change by process only.
The Manifesto for Enterprise Agility is for organisations that need to adapt faster, stay aligned, and keep strategy actionable.
The principles guide executives and practitioners in operationalising the values and offer leaders the clarity to act on what really matters.
Endorsing the PMI manifesto, Greg Beato, co-author of Superagency, said:
“Twenty-five years after the Manifesto for Agile Software Development presented a new way to think about software development, it’s time to apply similar thinking to enterprises as a whole, not just to projects or products. Just as the Agile Manifesto was a response to a major change in technological conditions driven by the internet, the growth in both physical and digital networks around the world compels enterprises to incorporate and deploy agility to their entire organisational systems, including leadership, operating models, execution governance, and culture.”
Kevin Nolan, CEO of GE Appliances, said:
“Today’s business landscape demands rapid adaptation and greater agility. Agile organisations adapt faster and take the lead, while those not embracing agility risk falling behind as collaboration becomes essential in a dynamic environment.”
Sagar Kochhar, former CEO and co-founder of Rebel Foods
“Enterprise agility is less about frameworks and more about leadership courage – the courage to reset the vision, dismantle legacy assumptions, and trust teams to execute within systems designed for speed. This Manifesto captures a critical truth: enterprise agility is not a transformation initiative, but a leadership mindset required to continuously reinvent vision, structure, and execution in a volatile world.”
The Manifesto is grounded in PMI research, including global C-suite surveys, executive interviews, and input from senior transformation practitioners, reflecting the realities leaders face across industries.
