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 Community Platform Launching in Days 🎬

January 21, 2026
News
Post Views: 0

A New Home for the HOBA Community

We’re excited to share that the new HOBA Community Platform is officially launching in days.
This is a major step forward for our global community of transformation professionals — and it’s been built to give you a cleaner, more structured, more reliable experience than a traditional social media group.

What You’ll Get Inside the New Platform

Over time, our community has grown beyond what Facebook groups are designed to handle — especially when it comes to organising resources, finding key updates, and keeping important conversations accessible.

The HOBA Community Platform is being launched to bring everything into one dedicated home, including:

Migration From Facebook Begins Imminently

As part of the rollout, we will begin migrating our existing Facebook communities to the HOBA Community Platform very soon.

If you’re in one of our private training groups, you’ll receive advance access and step-by-step onboarding instructions.
If you’re in our public community group, you’ll be invited across as the new platform opens up, so you can continue the community journey in the new space.

Timing note: We’re aiming to complete the migration ahead of the HOBA Pro AI go-live on 2 February, so everything is in one place before launch.

Read full press release here.

What You’ll Get Inside the New Platform

The HOBA Community Platform has been designed to be the single destination for everything you need, including:

In short: less noise, more value, and a platform designed for outcomes.

What Happens Next

Here’s what to expect:

Invitation emails will be sent out with your access link
You’ll receive simple onboarding instructions so you can join in minutes
We’ll confirm the cutover plan for each group so nothing is missed

Action required: Please keep an eye on your inbox — your invitation will arrive shortly.

🚀 We’re days away from launching the new HOBA Community Platform — a dedicated home for transformation professionals to learn, connect, and actually deliver outcomes (not fight the algorithm). Migration invites are rolling out imminently. ✅ #BusinessTransformation #HOBA #ChangeManagement #AgileTransformation #Leadership 🎯

Heath Gascoigne Tweet

Get Ready for HOBA Pro AI

This platform launch is also a key foundation for what comes next. With HOBA Pro AI going live on 2 February, we want every member to have one trusted place to get updates, access support, and stay connected.

We look forward to welcoming you into the new HOBA Community Platform.

Learn More About HOBA Community
Link: coming soon!

Join the Waitlist for HOBA Pro AI
Link: https://app.hoba.tech

🧠✨ Facebook groups aren’t built for serious transformation work. The new HOBA Community Platform brings community + resources + training updates into one place — and it’s landing ahead of the HOBA Pro AI go-live on 2 Feb. Watch your inbox for your invite. 📩 #HOBACommunity #Transformation #EnterpriseAgility #OperatingModel #AI #HOBAPro

Heath Gascoigne Tweet

About HOBA Tech

HOBA Tech is the creator of HOBA (House of Business Architecture) — a business-led transformation framework used by thousands of practitioners and adopted by organisations globally, including public sector institutions. HOBA Tech builds training, tooling, and AI-powered products designed to increase transformation success rates and reduce delivery risk.

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 Community Platform Launching in Days 🎬

A New Home for the HOBA Community

What You’ll Get Inside the New Platform

Migration From Facebook Begins Imminently

What You’ll Get Inside the New Platform

What Happens Next

Get Ready for HOBA Pro AI

About HOBA Tech

Register for our newsletter: Business Transformation News in your mailbox

Other News

HOBA Community Platform Launching in Days | Migration Starts Now

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

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

Enjoying this post?

Webinar has eneded, Join Waitlist

Apologies, The Scorecard is currently down!