Arenas Require Agility—And Agility Starts with Value Streams

Part 3 of the series: “How to Win in the Next Arena of Digital Commerce”

In its report The Next Big Arenas of Competition, McKinsey describes a new reality: markets like eCommerce are no longer defined by stability but by constant change.

If you can’t adapt quickly, you lose—even with great products and strong market presence.

That’s why this third part of our series focuses on the key success factor in such arenas: agility. And why it doesn’t start with systems—but with value streams.

Why Agility Is the Key to Survival

McKinsey makes it clear: In arenas, competitive advantage stems from:

• Rapid innovation cycles
• Continuous improvement of value streams
• High resilience to change

To compete in such an environment, you must stay flexible—not modernize once, but iterate continuously.

“To win in arenas, companies must shift from rigid operating models to dynamic systems capable of continual reinvention.”
– McKinsey, 2024

And this is exactly where many companies struggle: their value streams are rigid, hardcoded, or siloed—not built for change, but for repetition.

Value Streams Are the Real Competitive Advantage

In a fragmented, hyper-competitive market, it’s no longer just about the product—it’s about how it’s sold, delivered, and supported.

Examples include:

• A quoting value stream that responds to customer requests in minutes.
• A promotion engine that dynamically adapts to inventory levels or margin goals.
• A returns value stream that ensures customer satisfaction through transparency and automation.

These streams must be adaptable—without disrupting operations. That’s the only way agility becomes scalable.

What Agility Looks Like in Practice

McKinsey identifies a key trait of successful arena players: “They embed adaptability deeply in their operating model.”

What that means for commerce:

• Modularity over dependency: Value Streams consist of clearly defined, combinable components.
• Transparency over black boxes: Everyone involved can see how value streams work—no hidden code.
• Ownership over handoffs: Business teams can model, manage, and adapt their own value streams.

And this doesn’t work with ticketing systems or multi-week projects. It requires visual value stream modeling, No- and Low-Code tools—embedded in an architecture designed for change.

Agility isn’t an IT issue! It’s a leadership decision

Many companies try to be agile without changing their structure. That never works.

True agility means:

• IT and business collaborating on value streams—not working in handoffs
• Developers building platforms—not one-off solutions
• KPIs measuring change—not just workload (e.g., Time-to-Change instead of Time-to-Launch)

That’s how a company becomes arena-ready.

Looking Ahead 

Next, we’ll explore the logical consequence of this mindset.

Part 4: “Platform Thinking Beyond the Tech Giants – How to Act Like Amazon Without Being Amazon”