The first Finnish book on Enterprise Agility has been published!

On Monday, November 11, 2024, we celebrated the release of Yritysketteryyden käsikirja (The Enterprise Agility Handbook) by Maarit Laanti and Nora Bäckman. We held a morning event at Messukeskus, Helsinki, and an afternoon webinar focused on agility in the public sector. Both events featured insights and practical experiences on agile working from four different speakers.

At the morning event, Johanna Reunanen from Nokia Cloud and Network Services shared how they foster continuous agile change within their organization, and Tiina Mac Laverty from Finland’s Digital and Population Data Services Agency highlighted why public sector organizations should embrace agility.

In the afternoon webinar, Katja Sene presented the Finnish Tax Administration’s agile journey, and Paula Vesterinen shared Kela’s experiences in developing resilience to change within a public organization.

Why was a Finnish guide necessary?

Maarit Laanti has trained over 3,000 people in agile frameworks and repeatedly received feedback about how helpful it would be to revisit the material in Finnish. This feedback inspired the creation of Yritysketteryyden käsikirja, offering Finnish-language resources to support organizations navigating agile transformation.

Agile methodologies originated in software development over 20 years ago and gained global traction through English-language materials. In Finland, agile methods began taking root in the mid-2000s, with Nokia among the early adopters. Yet, no Finnish-language book addressing company-wide agility was available.

As more organizations are shifting towards enterprise-wide agility, we wanted to create a clear and practical guide that allows people to explore agile concepts in their native language. Thus, we wrote Yritysketteryyden käsikirja that supports Finnish organizations at every stage of agile transformation.

The book covers the core elements of an agile transformation, enabling readers to focus on the areas where they need the most help. Each chapter includes real-world stories from Finnish companies, illustrating what change looks like in practice. The book aims to assist people undergoing agile transformations by explaining the essentials of the SAFe framework in Finnish and expanding on topics like cultural change and usability design. It also explores what agility means in other functions like finance and marketing, helping organizations design their own agile paths.

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“The examples of enterprise agility are highly engaging and highlight the importance of agile operations at the company level. The discussion on circular economy and digital transformation also ties the agile model to today’s values.”
– Johanna Reunanen, Nokia Cloud and Network Services

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“One of the book’s strengths is Laanti and Bäckman’s focus on clarity and practical applications. They break down the SAFe framework into components and explain how each contributes to agile transformation.”
– Jennifer W. Fawcett, SAFe Fellow

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