What the Comrades Marathon tells you about Agile Transformations

I was asked to submit a “Running Mann-style” presentation for the Business Agility Africa conference.  The accepted topic was, “What the Comrades Marathon tells you about Agile Transformations” and ended up being the final of 21 presentations from speakers representing 6 countries.

Before the presentation, several of the 170 delegates asked, “How the hell do you relate Comrades to agile transformations?” After the presentation, they were left in no doubt! The presentation combines stats and stories from the great ultra running event on the planet – and I even managed to work in “The Agile Running Mannifesto!”

The slide deck I used in the presentation is attached below- whilst some slides are self-explanatory, there are many that require some context. The good news it that I will link to the video recording of the presentation once available.

Download the slide deck in .pdf format: EBA_Comrades_1.0

I am happy to repeat the presentation (and have plenty of additional content that I cut from version to make the 25 minutes time slot).

Watch the presentation video here:

Thanks to the Comrades Marathon Association for supplying pictures to cover the gaps in my personal Comrades photo collection, the runners who shared their inspirational before and after pictures (sorry I couldn’t include them all in the presentation) and my colleague Jeetesh Mistry for the fantastic photos he took during the presentation.

I have also included all the slides in .jpeg format below for those who are “just browsing”.

Business Agility conferences are run under the guidance of the Business Agility Institute. Africa was the last continent to host a Business Agility Conference but, according to Evan Leybourn (Founder and CEO of the Business Agility Institute), this was the best inaugural conference ever. The next conference will be held in March 2021, further details will be published on http://businessagility.africa/wp/ f.

Be Agile was instrumental in ensuring that this conference was a world class event. They continue to lead the business agility community in South Africa and globally.

Follow Running Mann:

• 
• 
• 
•