NEW RULES FOR REDUCING RISK IN BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION: ACCELERATING MINDSET AND BEHAVIOUR SHIFTS
Business transformation is pervasive. Nine out of 10 companies are undergoing transformation, according to a KPMG survey, with billions of dollars a year spent on business repositioning, portfolio realignment and expansion, turnarounds and recoveries.
Millions of employee hours will be dedicated, and yet only 24 percent of these efforts will put their organisations ahead of the competition in the short and long term. No wonder so many companies do not even like to use the word ‘transformation’ any more.
But calling transformation by another name does not reduce the forces causing companies to transform or the urgency with which transformation is being pursued. The ‘topple rate’ of industry leaders falling has doubled in a generation according to the Harvard Business Review. And Innosight analysis uncovered that at the current churn rate, 75 percent of the S&P 500 will be replaced in less than 10 years.
Any number of factors determine whether a transformation will succeed, but one of the key characteristics that successful transformations share is a focus on shifting mindsets and behaviours of stakeholders. In fact, McKinsey & Company found that companies that translate the transformation business strategy into an engaging case for change that people can connect to, and communicate that vision on an ongoing basis to all audiences, are eight times more likely to report a successful transformation than those that do not.
Jul-Sep 2018 Issue
Edelman