Business Agility Academy

Professionalizing Business Agility Coaching

Demonstrate your capabilities as a business agility coach and achieve the most rigorous credentials in the industry

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What is business agility?

Business agility is an organization’s ability to respond to an ever changing environment. It is also the ability to shape the future proactively based on a deep understanding of customer needs, technological advancement, and a positive mission related to people, planet, and sustainable profits.

Manifesto

In the 12th century, the first medical school in the world was founded in Montpellier, France. It took another 600 years till 1765, to the foundation of the first medical school in the USA. The creation of these schools was the start of medicine becoming a true profession. Prior to that anyone could claim to be a doctor.

Many other professions went through the same process. It took the establishment of law, engineering, and business schools to create these professions which means setting a certain quality standard for that job. Agile Coaching and specifically Business Agility Coaching is far from being a profession – but we believe it must be one.

This is why we are creating Business Agility Academy. This is why we believe there needs to be more rigor, more achievement based assessments, and more inclusiveness in terms of education preferences.

Credentials

Certification Badge: Business Agility Academy, Certified Business Agility Coach - Associate Level
Certification Badge: Business Agility Academy, Certified Business Agility Coach - Professional Level
Certification Badge: Business Agility Academy, Certified Business Agility Coach - Expert Level
Karim Harbott

Karim Harbott

Sohrab Salimi

Sohrab Salimi

About us

We – Karim Harbott and Sohrab Salimi – joined forces to create the Business Agility Academy because we both saw the gap in current agile certifications programs to rigorously accredit and certify true business agility knowledge and experience. At the same time, even the most prestigious MBA programs do not cover the content relevant for leaders in today’s VUCA world.

In order to help individuals (leaders on various levels) drive real organizational change towards true business agility we aim to create a program where the best educators in the space of business agility can connect with the most vivid learners. This program is a space where a community of global leaders can learn from us, other educators, and each other.

The most rigorous
business agility credential

Calling oneself an Agile Coach takes nothing other than an update to one’s LinkedIn profile. Obviously, this does not mean that one is qualified to deliver results for an organization. We aim to bring more rigor to the credentialing process for business agility coaches through validating not only education, but especially work experience, and client references.

The achievement-based
business agility credential

Too many agile coaches are focused on implementing agile rather than delivering business results.

In order to achieve a Business Agility Academy credential one needs to demonstrate the ability to think holistically i.e. beyond agile frameworks and really deliver results within teams and organizations.

The only inclusive
business agility credential

With most organizations one needs to commit to a specific framework to move forward on their individual agile journey. At Business Agility Academy, we deliberately decided to not only be framework agnostic, but to also welcome people that have started their journey with various organizations. Any type of education – including self-study – count towards a BAA credential.

“Prior to being a CEO, I saw myself first and foremost as an Agile Coach. With now several years of executive experience under my belt, I know that it takes more to create true business agility than just agile coaching. BAA is the only organization credentialing that skill. I am truly happy to be awarded the Expert Business Agility Coach credential.”

Melissa Boggs
Enterprise Agile Coach, Former co-CEO Scrum Alliance

Application process

In order to provide a personal and diligent review of your application we have set out the following process:

  1. Join our waiting list
  2. Once it’s your turn, we will share your personal application folder with you
  3. Submit your application for review using the provided templates
  4. If needed, clarify our questions so that we can together move you forward
  5. In case you are applying for E-BAC we will conduct a personal interview

Setting a gold standard for coaches

We look for applicants that demonstrate true professionalism in the space of business agility. As part of that they are not only able to deliver value across the organisation, but also act ethically. These gold standards have been captured in our core competencies. They serve both the business agility coaches and the organisations seeking help from these coaches to align on expectations.

Core Competencies
we look for

  1. Raising Awareness for Business Agility
  2. Cultivating Agile Leadership
  3. Developing Enterprise-Wide Agility
  4. Consulting, Coaching, and Leading Organisational Change
  5. Advising on Business Models, Innovation, & Strategy
  6. Demonstrating Professional Presence
“I am grateful to be an Expert Business Agility Coach as it is the only credential which values both my Agile Coaching skills as well as my business acumen. Both domains are essential to support my clients business agility transformation.”

Richard Cheng
VP of Training & Chief Product Owner, NextUp Solutions

Demonstrate your capabilities as a business agility coach and achieve the most rigorous credential in the industry