Transformation has become a popular aspiration. Companies want to do it and consultants want to help them. Transformation symbolizes potential and growth; it enables businesses to embrace complex and difficult business challenges, with the successful ones emerging more resilient and more powerful. Transformation is the coveted journey to continued higher performance and the basis for sustained competitive advantage.
And yet, only 30% of transformation programs are successful. The failure rate suggests that it is incorrect for management to believe that a good communication plan and robust training are sufficient conditions for success. It is often the situation that the business case and benefits are not realized, and whilst the ’what’ of the program is understood, the ‘how‘ and ‘why‘ can be less clear.
Successful transformation requires alignment throughout the business and the full and visible commitment of the leadership team. Best practice involves co-creation of the approach, self-selected engagement and involvement, and a culture of continuous change. The ‘why‘ and ‘how‘ are as important as the ‘what‘. Our approach to managing transformations directly addresses this; it includes a suite of tools and techniques focused on ensuring that a transformation is set up and managed to maximize and speed up the benefits while minimizing risk and ensuring the change is sustainable.