WHY IS THERE SUCH A HIGH FAILURE RATE IN BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION TODAY?

The true number of business transformation project failure is underreported. Depending on which research you follow, the figure is between 70% – 80% of business transformation projects end in failure. There is five (5) main causes in business transformation failure are – lack of stakeholder involvement, lack of senior stakeholder support, changing requirement, incomplete requirements and poor planning.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH EXISTING APPROACHES?

Nothing. They are good at the purpose they were designed for, except they are now used for a different purpose, and that is not the original purpose they were designed for. Look at TOGAF® (The Open Group Architecture Framework) for example – it’s a framework for managing ‘technology’ or ‘technology changes’. It is not surprising, it was written by a “technology standards company”. They know and understand technology. What is happening is, TOGAF® is being used in business transformation projects that the ‘framework’ to manage the ‘transformation’, but it only focuses one thing – technology. It doesn’t focus on anything else other than Technology (it almost completely ignores, the other two (2) important aspects of the organisation – People, and Process(es)). It also ignores how to transition the business from the current state, to its desired future state. It effectively put the Technology stakeholders in the drivers set, to dictate to the Business what they think they want and literally throw it over the fence to the Business for them to work out if first it is fit for purpose, and then how to use and implement it.

HOW DOES HOBA® SOLVE THE PROBLEM IN BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION TODAY?

HOBA® solves the 70% failure rate in business transformation problem by addressing the causes that problem in the first place – by putting the Business back into control, to take control back from Technology and into their own hands, using a structured process and framework that was developed WITH the Business, BY the Business, to be USED and OWNED by the Business, putting the control back into their own hands.

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST PROBLEM WITH BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION PROJECTS AND HOW DOES HOBA® HELP?

The biggest problem with business transformation projects is firstly the name. “Business Transformation” is incorrectly called or referred to as “Digital Transformation”. ‘Digital Transformation’ is a misnomer, it is not ‘digital’ per se that is ‘transforming’, it is the ‘Business’ that is transforming, and how it does or is doing that in this period of time is via ‘digital technologies’ (if ‘technology’ isn’t already digital, what were they before?). What this intentional confusion in the marketplace is causing, is it causes is an incorrect bias and focus on the ‘technology aspect’ only of the transformation, which by doing so completely ignores the Business aspects – that’s the Business Operations Stakeholders and their concerns, and the Processes those stakeholders carry out. HOBA® helps by putting the Business back in to control, to be very clear and structured with what is the Vision, Strategy, Objectives and Measures, what stakeholders are involved and need to be involved in the transformation and their decision making authority, the process to manage those decisions, scope and risks; what are the problems they want to address or opportunities they want to take advantage of; what benefits they want to realise from the transformation and when; what the future or Target Operating Model (TOM) needs to look like to achieve their Vision and Strategic Objectives and business benefits, and how and when will the changes be implemented. Everything and nothing more, only doing what needs to be done, to transform the business, not doing what is happening in the marketplace today and that is ‘creating reams and reams of colourful models and diagrams, that while beautiful, are in reality just “interesting but (sadly) useless”.

WHAT IS THE DESIGN PROCESS?

The Design Process is the 6-Step process used to implement HOBA® and manage the transformation from the very start, to the very end, implementation.

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST MISCONCEPTION IN THE MARKETPLACE?

The biggest misconception in the marketplace today with business transformation is that Clients are led to believe that they need ‘reams and reams’ of pretty colourful presentations to transform your business. This is a fallacy. This only creates expensive shelf-ware. What those ‘pretty presentations’ are designed for is to enable the transformation project to keep moving toward its end goal, transforming the Business. What the Clients are led to believe is those ‘pretty presentations are the actual goal of the project, and often celebrated and hang up on the project office wall with great bravado as if they were the goal of the transformation itself! What those ‘pretty presentations’ actually need to be is two (2) things – first, is they need to be understandable, and written in a language that the Business understands, so first they can understand what it and they mean, and then they can agree to it. Then second, then they need to be useful. A lot of Consultants and Consultancy’s wanting to impress their clients with great marketing, pretty presentations and long list of impressive acronyms and latest “it” words, but this just confuses the Client. What happens is the Consultants will present their ‘ideas’ (because that’s what they are, they have had one meeting with the Client, interpreted that into their own words and perspectives, and come back to them several weeks and months later, having not consulted with them through the process, thinking ‘they know their Clients business best (they don’t, the Client does!) and play back their 300+ page power-point presentation that looks impressive), they present it to the Client, the Client has no idea what it means or says (its written in a foreign language, literally), due to the time it’s taken, and the money it has cost at that point, the Client agrees to it in the room, then walks out the room, and completely ignores everything the Consultant(s) said. The transformation goes nowhere. HOBA® solves that problem, refer to the first question above.

HOBA® is trusted by the UK Government, FTSE-100 companies and start-ups to both set up, and also turnaround their failing transformations. HOBA® is used by thousands around to transform their business, and was made public for the first time in late 2018, after over 10+ years in use with private clients, published in The Business Transformation Playbook – How to Implement Your Organisations Target Operating Model (TOM) and Achieve a Zero-Percent Failure Rate Using the 6-Step Agile Framework’, reaching bestseller on Amazon in 6-categories including Project Management and Consulting, and made it onto the Best Business Strategy eBook List of All Time by BookAuthority, at no.30 (March 2021). See News for details.

CAN I READ A PREVIEW OF THE BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION PLAYBOOK?

Yes, you can download a FREE preview to The Business Transformation Playbook here.

HOBA Tech Reflects on 2025: Nine Years of Innovation and the Launch of HOBA Pro AI 📰

January 5, 2026
News
Post Views: 473

LONDON, UK —

HOBA Tech today published its comprehensive year-end review, “2025: The Year the Business Transformation Ecosystem Moved,” marking nine years of disrupting the transformation industry and previewing the January 2026 public launch of HOBA Pro AI.

The blog post, authored by founder and CEO Heath Gascoigne, reflects on how 2025 represented an inflection point for business transformation—evolving from isolated consulting engagements into an interconnected ecosystem where verified expertise, practical application, and AI-enabled delivery converged to reshape organizational change.

Nine Years of Building the House

Since its founding in 2016, HOBA Tech has:

Published The Business Transformation Playbook, a 6-time Amazon bestseller now stocked in 14 retail stores across the UK (including Waterstones and Gladwell's university bookshops) and USA (including Barnes & Noble)
Reached tens of thousands of practitioners and hundreds of organizations including the UK Government
Trained and certified transformation architects through the Certified HOBA Business Transformation Architect program
Delivered measurable transformation outcomes across financial services, government, healthcare, and technology sectors

2025: A Year of Acceleration

CEO Recognition

In November 2025, Heath Gascoigne was named Digital Transformation CEO of the Year 2025 by CEO Monthly, validating HOBA Tech’s outcome-driven approach to transformation.

Global Expansion

After 15 years away, HOBA Tech returned to Australia and New Zealand in September 2025, recruiting founding team members and establishing regional partnerships to bring the full HOBA ecosystem—consulting, training, certification, and HOBA Pro AI—to the ANZ market.

Nine Scholarships for Nine Years

To celebrate its 9-year anniversary, HOBA Tech awarded 9 full scholarships to its Certified HOBA Business Transformation Architect program following a live draw from thousands of global applications.

Spanish Translation Launched

HOBA Tech launched the first translation of The Business Transformation Playbook into Spanish, making the framework accessible to millions of Spanish-speaking professionals worldwide.

Real-World Impact: FCA Collaboration

HOBA Tech completed three successful transformation projects with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), supporting Data and Financial Understanding (DFU) capability buildout, ESG ratings regime implementation, and financial-crime Target Operating Model (TOM) design.

Media Recognition

The Business Transformation Podcast was recognized as one of the Top 10 Business Transformation Podcasts for 2026, while Gascoigne was featured in COO Insider on high-ROI operational efficiency improvements.

The Big Announcement: HOBA Pro AI

The year-end review’s headline news: HOBA Pro AI launched in Private Beta in Q4 2025 and will go public in early January 2026.

HOBA Pro AI is the world’s first AI-enabled business transformation platform that operationalizes the HOBA framework. Unlike project management tools or documentation repositories, HOBA Pro AI serves as a transformation copilot that:

Guides users through HOBA’s proven 6-step methodology
Automates artifact creation (Vision Maps, Statements of Work, Organization Maps)
Provides real-time AI recommendations based on inputs and best practices
Integrates with existing project management, CRM, and data platforms
Tracks transformation progress and outcomes across portfolios

The Private Beta launched with three core blueprints: Statement of Work (SOW), Vision Mapping (Vizom), and Organization Mapping. Beta users are reporting significantly faster artifact creation, higher quality outputs, and better stakeholder alignment.

Public Launch: January 2026

“For nine years, we’ve taught the HOBA framework through consulting, books, and training,” Gascoigne writes in the blog post. “Now, we’re embedding that framework into AI-powered software that guides you through transformation step-by-step.”

Join the waitlist to be first in line for public access when HOBA Pro AI launches in January 2026.

Read the complete 2025 year-end review here →

Read the full press release here →

🚀 "9 years isn’t just a milestone; it’s a measure of the structure, repeatability, and proven outcomes we've built into the HOBA Framework. We laid the bricks so you can build the future. 🧱🌍✨ #BusinessTransformation #HOBATech #Strategy #9YearsOfBuilding"

Heath Gascoigne Tweet

About HOBA Tech

HOBA Tech is a global business transformation consultancy, training academy, and software company founded in 2016 by Heath Gascoigne. The company’s HOBA (House of Business Architecture) framework has been used by tens of thousands of practitioners and hundreds of organizations worldwide, including the UK Government. HOBA Tech offers consulting services, certification programs, and the HOBA Pro AI platform to help organizations achieve transformation outcomes while avoiding the industry’s 70% failure rate.

Register for our newsletter: Business Transformation News in your mailbox

Stay up to date with us, register here for the Business Transformation News

🎉 Extended Cyber Monday – 20% OFF Sitewide (Last Chance!)

HOBA Tech Reflects on 2025: Nine Years of Innovation and the Launch of HOBA Pro AI 📰

LONDON, UK —

Nine Years of Building the House

2025: A Year of Acceleration

The Big Announcement: HOBA Pro AI

Public Launch: January 2026

About HOBA Tech

Register for our newsletter: Business Transformation News in your mailbox

Other News

HOBA Tech Reflects on 2025: 9 Years of Innovation + HOBA Pro AI Launch

Heath Gascoigne Featured in COO Insider on High-ROI Operational Efficiency

FCA programme updates: DFU capability, ESG ratings regime & financial-crime TOM — and how HOBA Tech contributed

Enjoying this post?

Webinar has eneded, Join Waitlist

Apologies, The Scorecard is currently down!