They’d already spent millions.
Replaced three legacy systems.
Hired a transformation director.
Nothing had changed.
Bain analysed 24,000 transformation programmes last year.
88% failed to achieve their original goals.
That’s not a project management problem.
That’s a systemic pattern.
When I asked my client what had gone wrong, they said technology.
It wasn’t technology.
It is almost never technology.
Here’s what Deloitte found across 4,600+ financial disclosures:
Companies that change their strategy alongside their technology outperform those that don’t by 14% in market cap. That’s a potential £2.75 trillion advantage across the Fortune 500 sitting unclaimed.
BCG found that organisations investing heavily in culture change see 5.3x higher success rates than technology-only approaches.
5.3x.
And yet every board meeting I sit in, the discussion is about platforms, vendors, and integration. Rarely about behaviours, incentives, and leadership.
Bain also found that 90% of transformation value comes from less than 5% of roles. If your most capable people are still running the day job, don’t expect much.
My client’s problem wasn’t the technology they chose.
It was that their CEO was four steps removed from the programme.
The most common obstacle to digital transformation?
The CEO, as cited by 35% of employees in a recent survey.
Not the IT team. Not the vendor. Not the budget.
The leader.
If you’re running a transformation right now, honest question:
When did you last personally unblock something that was stuck because of you?
