Agile Company Development - Looking for a new concept

This paper will explore the concepts of Lean and Agile Thinking to see, if they may enrich the management of internal company development activities. At any point in time, companies have a crowd of development activities spread around the organization and managed at different levels in the managerial hierarchy. They compete for resources and managerial attention and they often take too long time – and some do not survive in the rapid changing context. Top managers ask for speed, flexibility and effectiveness. Can the ideas and principles from Agile and Lean Thinking concepts developed for manufacturing management, be transformed to the management of internal company development? The paper will discuss this question. Practices observed from empirical studies will demonstrate application of the concepts and will form the basis for developing an appropriate, company-specific blend of methods and means for managing internal company development. This paper will also include a discussion of limitations and pre-requisites for applying concepts of Lean and Agile Thinking.