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Problem
Client is a major FMCG giant with operations spanning across India for over a century. Leadership intends the organization to be more ‘Agile’ in general. The focus is for the teams to be more collaborative, innovative, have a bias towards action and move towards a culture of continuous improvement with an iterative approach.
Client is aware of the need for organizations to adapt to the constant changes in a VUCA environment and the value of actively seeking disruption. They want their mid level leadership to embrace agility in spirit, break silos, choose progress over perfection and be more customer centric.
The first step in developing this agile mindset is to ‘know’ Agile through an immersive Agile learning program for their leadership and managerial teams. Eventually the leadership team intends to become a more mature agile organization and internalize agile mindset and culture within the organization to continue its market leadership through constant innovation and disruption.
Journey
In the first phase of this engagement, we designed and curated a customized Agile learning program which was contextual to the client environment. The Agile program outline was constantly evolved during the program to align with the client environment. The challenge was to tailor the program from a Non-IT perspective and contextualize the subject matter to the FMCG and Manufacturing environment.
We focused on introducing core Agile concepts – incremental, iterative ways of working with closed feedback loops to inculcate a culture of collaboration, continuous improvement and customer centricity. Breaking down work in smaller pieces, encouraging teams to self organize, visualizing work progress, meeting frequently in a timeboxed set up, transparent communication, meaningful retrospectives, empathy driven product mindset and collaborative work environment were some of the key concepts which were introduced to the audience and the value they bring was articulated and communicated using various activities, games and discussions.
We conducted a series of workshops covering close to 120-140 participants across multiple client locations in India during a 6 month period in this engagement.
Outcomes
The learning program created a lot of buzz within the organization and the teams had great fun and learning during the workshops, we were able to trigger discussions around the current start of working – the good and the not so good, understand the perspective of middle management from operational and team management perspective and gained a lot of insights to prepare for the next stage of actual implementation – taking up projects and execute them using Agile ways of working.
We were able to align the teams on the need of ‘Agility’ in the overall system, the need to have a one-team mindset and the need for everyone to be equal stakeholders in this change. Leaders agreed that agility can be pursued at all levels without waiting for a top driven big-bang approach. Frequent meaningful retrospectives, flow based work management, more inter team communication and collaboration, timeboxing of events and effective time management were acknowledged as immediate low hanging fruits, which they can start without waiting for the entire system to be disrupted from the top.
We also took team feedback on better resource planning, more autonomy, robust recognition systems and growth opportunities and relayed them back to the senior management. This will help them to plan for the phase 2 of the program, where we move from the ‘knowing’ to the ‘doing’ part.
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Building an agility based culture in India’s largest FMCG Company
Building Agile Mindset & Culture in One of India’s Largest FMCG Organisations
Client Overview
The client is one of India’s largest and oldest FMCG enterprises, operating nationwide for over a century with a diverse portfolio and a widespread manufacturing footprint. Leadership recognised the need to build a more Agile, collaborative, and innovation-led culture to stay competitive in a VUCA environment marked by evolving consumer expectations, emerging disruptions, and operational complexities.
The organisation sought a consulting partner to design an immersive learning program that would introduce Agile principles to mid-level leaders and equip them to drive cultural transformation across manufacturing units and business functions.
Business Challenges
The organisation faced several cultural and operational challenges that constrained responsiveness, collaboration, and innovation:
Fragmented Decision-Making
Siloed functions across manufacturing, operations,
and business units limited alignment and collective execution.
Leadership Mindset Shift
Leaders required adoption of an iterative, customer-centric approach focused on progress over perfection.
Limited Agile Awareness
Agile principles needed contextualisation beyond IT to suit manufacturing and FMCG operating models.
Need for Continuous Improvement Culture
Organisation aimed to embed faster feedback loops, experimentation, and a proactive problem-solving mindset.
Scalable Transformation Foundation
Required a structured framework to enable scalable Agile adoption across teams, functions, and operational processes.
Cross-Functional Alignment Imperative
Stronger collaboration mechanisms were essential to reduce silos and support unified business outcomes.
Our Approach
NextAgile adopted a structured and contextualised approach to introduce Agile concepts in a Non-IT, manufacturing-led environment.
- Conducted need analysis with senior leadership to understand cultural gaps and transformation priorities.
- Assessed current ways of working, collaboration patterns, and leadership maturity across business and manufacturing units.
- Identified learning themes tied to real challenges such as siloed workflows, slow decision cycles, and limited experimentation.
- Designed a fully customised Agile learning program tailored for a Non-IT FMCG environment.
- Curated content around incremental and iterative ways of working, flow-based execution, and collaborative problem-solving.
- Integrated FMCG examples, operational scenarios, and manufacturing use cases to ensure relevance and adoption.
- Evolved the program iteratively based on participant insights, feedback, and cultural nuances surfaced during sessions.
- Delivered interactive workshops to 120–140 leaders and managers across multiple regional locations over a 6-month period.
- Introduced concepts such as:
- breaking work into smaller increments
- self-organisation and shared ownership
- visual workplace and WIP management
- timeboxed meetings and structured communication
- customer-centricity and empathy-led product thinking
- Used simulations, activities, games, and real discussions to translate abstract Agile principles into applicable behavioural shifts.
- Facilitated structured reflection sessions to identify existing strengths, pain points, and cultural barriers.
- Helped teams align around a shared understanding of agility, one-team mindset, and collective ownership of change.
- Captured feedback related to autonomy, resource planning, recognition systems, and growth—shared with senior leadership to inform Phase 2.
- Outlined opportunities to transition from learning to application through Agile pilot projects.
- Recommended immediate low-hanging fruits such as timeboxing, inter-team syncs, retrospectives, and visual workflow management.
- Established the foundation for a future execution-focused engagement aligned to doing Agile and scaling practices sustainably.
Impact & Outcomes
The engagement created strong momentum across the organisation and enabled leadership to take informed steps toward cultural transformation:
Strong Organisational Engagement
Manufacturing and business teams demonstrated heightened interest and participation in Agile concepts.
Shared Alignment on Agility
Agility was embraced across levels as a collective behavioural shift rather than a top-down directive.
Adoption of High-Impact Practices
Simple practices—retrospectives, timeboxing, flow-based work, and structured communication—delivered immediate value.
Strengthened Leadership Dialogue
More effective discussions emerged between mid-level and senior leaders on workflow challenges and resource planning.
Foundation for Scaling Agility
A unified organizational baseline was established to enable structured adoption in Phase 2.
Readiness for Cross-Functional Application
Teams were prepared to apply Agile ways of working to real operational and cross-functional initiatives.
Testimonial
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