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.

Business Transformation Industry is Broken

By Heath Gascoigne
December 4, 2018
Business Architecture, Business Transformation
Post Views: 1,395

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Welcome to our deep dive into the current state of the business transformation industry.

This blog post aims to shed light on the pressing issues that have led many to believe that the industry is broken.

We will explore the various challenges that organizations face during transformation initiatives, from resistance to change and lack of alignment, to the continuous pace of change and the failure to address urgent external challenges.

We will also discuss the high failure rate of transformation initiatives, a stark reality that underscores the need for a systemic overhaul of the industry.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

Join us as we delve into these issues and explore potential solutions to mend the broken aspects of the business transformation industry.”

Please note that the hyperlinks in the table of contents will be added once the sections are finalized.

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.

🌟 "Transforming business isn't just about change; it's about rewriting the rules of the game. Embrace innovation, reimagine processes, and lead the way to a brighter future! 🚀🔄 #BusinessTransformation #InnovateToElevate #ChangeTheGame

Heath Gascoigne Tweet

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:

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:

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.

6-Steps to Business Transformation Success

WHAT THE TOP 30% OF ORGANISATIONS KNOW THAT YOU DON’T 👉

🚨 "Business Transformation Industry is Broken," Heath Gascoigne boldly stated, "70% of business transformations fail. Only 30% are successful." This alarming statistic sheds light on the harsh reality of the current state of the industry. 😱💥 #MythBuster #BusinessTransformation #BusinessArchitecture

Heath Gascoigne Tweet

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:

The Chaos Report also ranked these factors based on its contribution to project success.

Note – the above tables and data are extracts from our book – The Business Transformation Playbook. Download a free preview here.

Business Transformation 101

Confused where to start? Get started right 👉

🚨 "The data is there, if you want to be successful with your Business Transformation you can reinvent the wheel, or do what works or follow popular but broken ways". 😱💥 #MythBuster #BusinessTransformation #BusinessArchitecture

Heath Gascoigne Tweet

Conclusion

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.

Heath Gascoigne

Hi, I'm Heath, the founder of HOBA TECH and host of The Business Transformation Podcast. I help Business Transformation Consultants, Business Designers and Business Architects transform their and their clients' business and join the 30% club that succeed. Join me on this journey.

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Im Speaking at Future of Business Conference 30-31 October 2023-Key Note-Heath Gascoigne

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