Agile enterprise engineering increases an organization's effectiveness by enabling it to identify and manage strategically critical tasks and processes. In this environment, it is critical to identify constraints and place resources where they do the most good. An agile organization cannot afford to sub-optimize on strategically irrelevant activities and processes. To appreciate the difference between an agile organization and a lean one, contrast a living organism with a machine. Organisms are agile because they learn and shape their environment to suit their needs and grow.
Machines are the ultimate in leanness because they only respond to preset demands.
When a significant change in the nature of demand occurs, one can scrap them and get new machines. Learning, influencing and growing enhance survival in ways that simple response cannot. Current principles of accounting may sweep that waste under the rug, but society still pays the price. In the long run, it is much cheaper to design organizational processes allowing them to evolve while producing wealth in a continuous, agile cycle. The key to this is managing interfaces.