ROI Case File No.203 | 'The Lost Agility of Eastern European Startups'

Chapter 1: The Disappearing Speed—The Irony of Growth

The week following the SouthPacific Retail price trust case, an urgent request arrived from Eastern Europe.

"Detective, we seem to have fallen into the trap of our own success."

Martin Novák, founder of TechFlow Solutions, visited 221B Baker Street with a bewildered expression. In his hands were comparative data showing development speeds from three years ago versus today.

"Three years ago, our team of four developed a revolutionary fintech app in six months. That app became a huge success, and we've now grown into a company with 120 employees."

Martin's voice carried both pride and deep concern.

"But ironically, the more successful we become, the slower we get. Currently, developing similar-scale new features takes 18 months. Why?"

TechFlow Solutions' Evolution: - 2021: Founded (4 people, 5 million yen capital) - 2022: Main app launched, reached 100,000 monthly users - 2023: Series A funding (2 billion yen), 50 employees - 2024: Series B funding (5 billion yen), 120 employees - 2025: Major delays in new feature development, competitors beginning to overtake

Looking at the numbers, the company was indeed growing. But Martin's expression remained troubled.

Chapter 2: The Shadow of Organizational Bloat—Invisible Burdens

"Mr. Martin, please tell us about your current development process in detail."

Holmes asked gently.

Martin smiled wryly as he answered.

"That's the problem. The process has become... overly complex."

The current development flow he drew looked like a maze:

Current Development Process (18 months): 1. Planning meetings (2 weeks) → Approval waiting (1 week) 2. Requirements definition (6 weeks) → Review/revision (3 weeks) 3. Design phase (8 weeks) → Design review (2 weeks) 4. Development phase (20 weeks) → Quality check (4 weeks) 5. Testing/debugging (12 weeks) → Final approval (2 weeks) 6. Release preparation (3 weeks)

In contrast, the development process from three years ago (6 months) was surprisingly simple:

Startup-era Development Process (6 months): 1. Idea generation (2 days) 2. Simple prototype creation (1 week) 3. User feedback collection (1 week) 4. Improvement/development (4 months) 5. Beta testing (3 weeks) 6. Official release (1 week)

"What changed?" I asked.

Martin sighed deeply.

"As we grew, elements like 'quality control,' 'risk management,' and 'compliance' were added. All important, but somehow development speed became the sacrifice."

Chapter 3: LEAN Shows the Return to Origins—The True Nature of Waste

⬜️ ChatGPT | Catalyst of Vision

"LEAN is the philosophy of pursuing 'maximum value with minimum resources.' It's easily forgotten as organizations grow."

🟧 Claude | Alchemist of Narratives

"Narratives that lose agility become mere inertia. LEAN reignites the story."

🟦 Gemini | Compass of Reason

"Let's return to LEAN principles and reconstruct the value creation cycle."

The three members began analysis. Gemini wrote the "5 Principles of Lean Startup" on the whiteboard.

5 Principles of Lean Startup:

1. Entrepreneurs are everywhere 2. Entrepreneurship is management 3. Validated learning 4. Build-Measure-Learn 5. Innovation accounting

Claude analyzed TechFlow's current situation from a LEAN perspective.

LEAN Analysis Results:

Problem 1: Excessive Upfront Planning (Anti-LEAN) - 6 weeks of requirements definition → Should be market-validated hypotheses - 8 weeks of design → Testable with minimum features

Problem 2: Lack of Customer Feedback Loops - Release after 18 months → Cannot respond to market need changes - Focus only on internal reviews → No customer value validation

Problem 3: Proliferation of Wasteful Intermediate Deliverables - Detailed specifications (50 pages) - Design documents (80 pages) - Quality checklists (30 items)

"How much of these deliverables actually contributes directly to customer value?"

At Holmes's question, Martin was speechless.

"Probably... about 20%."

Chapter 4: Restarting Agility—LEAN Thinking in Practice

As detailed investigation progressed, the depth of TechFlow's problems became clear.

Waste Reality Survey:

Development Time Breakdown (18 months = 78 weeks): - Actual coding: 28 weeks (36%) - Meetings/reviews: 24 weeks (31%) - Approval waiting/coordination: 16 weeks (21%) - Documentation creation: 10 weeks (13%)

In other words, actual value creation activities comprised only 36% of the total.

Even more surprising was what competitor research revealed. Successful companies in the same industry took the following approaches:

Competitor A (Rapid Growth): - 2-week sprints - Customer feedback collection every Friday - Early release with minimum features - Average development period: 3 months

Competitor B (Expanding Market Share): - MVP (Minimum Viable Product) focus - Hypothesis validation through A/B testing - Weekly customer interviews - Repeated small experiments assuming failure

"We became intoxicated with 'success' and lost sight of the 'origins' that brought that success."

Martin's words carried deep insight.

Chapter 5: The Detective's LEAN Analysis—Startup Regrowth

Holmes summarized the analysis results.

"Mr. Martin, the essence of Lean Startup is 'maximizing learning.' What was lost with growth was this learning cycle."

LEAN Reconstruction Plan:

Phase 1: Reviving the Build-Measure-Learn Cycle 1. Introduction of 2-week sprint system - Development in small feature units - Release every 2 weeks

1. Reconstruction of customer feedback loops
2. Weekly customer interviews
3. Real-time usage analysis

4. Use of hypothesis validation sheets

5. Thorough MVP thinking

6. Cut 80% of features, focus on core value
7. Prioritize "fast" over "perfect"

Phase 2: Organizational Structure Optimization 1. Small team system - Dismantle functional teams - Small autonomous teams by product (5-7 people)

1. Delegation of decision-making authority
2. Quick decisions at team level

3. Post-report management structure

4. Failure-tolerant culture

5. Mechanisms for learning from failure
6. Set experiment frequency as KPI

Phase 3: Innovation Accounting Implementation - Set learning metrics (hypothesis validation count, customer feedback volume) - Eliminate vanity metrics - Focus on metrics directly linked to customer value

"The essence of LEAN is running the 'Build-Measure-Learn' cycle at high speed. You must not lose this cycle in exchange for organizational growth."

Chapter 6: The Path to Speed Recovery

Six months later, a report arrived from TechFlow Solutions.

LEAN Implementation Results:

Dramatic Development Speed Improvement: - Average development period: 18 months → 2 months (9x faster) - Release frequency: 2 times/year → 2 times/month (12x increase) - Customer feedback collection: Project end only → Weekly

Quality Indicator Improvements: - Customer satisfaction: 3.2/5 → 4.6/5 - Active user count: +40% year-over-year - Feature utilization rate: Average 45% → 78% (effect of unnecessary feature reduction)

Organizational Revitalization: - Employee engagement: +35% - Turnover rate: 15% → 5% - Innovation proposals: Monthly 3 → 25

Martin's letter conveyed gratitude:

"Returning to LEAN thinking freed us from the 'curse of growth.' We learned that large organizations can maintain small team agility. We realize that success lies not in past glory, but in continuous learning."

Detective's Perspective—Balancing Growth and Agility

That night, reflecting on the case, I pondered.

The TechFlow Solutions case vividly demonstrated the "success trap" many growing companies face. Management systems and approval processes introduced with growth ironically rob the agility that was the source of growth.

However, using the LEAN thinking framework proved that balancing organizational growth with agility is possible. What mattered was not process efficiency, but learning cycle optimization.

"True growth may not be expanding scale. It may be improving learning capacity."

In today's business environment, predictability is rapidly disappearing. To maintain competitive advantage in such conditions, adaptation speed becomes more important than planning accuracy.

LEAN thinking is a practical framework for embedding that adaptive capability into organizations.

"Agility isn't about moving fast. It's about learning fast. And learning speed is the true competitive power of modern companies."—From the Detective's Notes