I wish I was in a position to choose my customers 😉
In my experience an agile “transition” (I know, it’s a journey and you never get there, etc.) needs both top-down and bottom-up support – but just setting it as a strategic objective is doomed to failure. In larger companies most “successful transitions” take at least 3 years to start bearing results that the end-customer actually notices.
I hate “twice the work in half the time” thinking. If anything, because they have an eye on quality, agile teams are probably slower than waterfall teams. However, with a well-ordered backlog they are more effective and deliver value earlier than waterfall teams. Doesn’t stop management thinking they’ll develop faster 🙁
Finally, the idea that it’s the developers who are to blame really gets my goat! Probably cause I used to be a developer 😉