Why The Business Transformation Industry Is Broken?
Before I show you how to transform your business, let’s define business transformation.
What Is Business Transformation?
Business Transformation is when a business changes the way it conducts business.
Business Transformation is when a business changes the way it conducts business.
It doesn’t necessarily change what it does, but how it does it.This can involve a change on creating and delivering product and services.
What’s An Example Of Business Transformation?
The Home Office UK processed Visa applications. It then transformed its business by changing from a paper-based business model to an online or digital business model. What the Home Office UK does hasn’t changed, but how it provides its service has become more digitised. They implemented scanning solutions, digital documentations and streamlined business processes to further remove paper from the process.
When Is The Change Considered A Transformation?
The quick answer is ‘it depends’.Let me explain.An organisation’s business model can be simplified into three (3) parts:
- Who – is the Customer?
- What – is the product or service?
- How – do they create and deliver their products and services?
Now, a change is considered transformative when other factors that come into play. Here are some guide questions you need to consider:
1. Has the business been through this change before? (Is the business used to change? Does the business and all of its stakeholders like change?)
2. Is the whole organisation affected or involved in the change? (The size and scale of the change is enterprise-wide and is not isolated to one department within the organisation)
3. Is the ‘transformation’ being implemented via a portfolio or programme of work, instead of one or two small or isolated projects? If the answer to these questions are ‘No’, then it’s pretty safe to say that it’s a business transformation.
When Does The Business Fail To Transform?
According to The Standard Group (2014) Chaos Report on business transformation, failure is defined in terms of two types of problem programmes:
- Challenged Programmes – completed but over budgeted, fewer features and functions than originally specified; and
- Impaired Programmes – cancelled at some point during the development phase.
These business transformation programmes were cancelled. Or they and missed their mark. But this is fairly common. The numbers show: 70% of business transformations fail. Only 30% are successful.
70% of business transformations fail. Only 30% are successful.
What’s The Problem With Business Transformation?
According to the Chaos Report, there are four (4) challenges that lead to the failure of business transformation. Here are the factors ranked:
Meanwhile, the following factors were present in impaired projects:
How Do You Increase The Chance Of Success For Your Transformation Programme?
To succeed in business transformation, the following success factors are necessary:
- User involvement
- Support from the top, and
- Clarity about the why (objective), how (strategy) and when (implementation).
The Chaos Report also ranked these factors based on its contribution to project success.
In short, if you want to embark on a business transformation programme you must do the following:
- Involve the Users in the development of the design and implementation of the business strategy.
- Ensure the right level and coverage of executive support and decision making is in place.
- Provide a framework and process where requirements are captured, validated and released when approved; and
- Provide a clear plan of the activities such as deliverables to be produced, and roles and responsibilities.
Thanks for reading this!
Sincerely,
Heath Gascoigne
P.S. If you want to learn more about business transformation, check out The Business Transformation Playbook or download the free preview here.
P.P.S. If you want to join our Business Transformator community of like-minded Business Transformators, join the community on the Business Transformator Facebook Group here.
