“ Gone are the days of business transformation ‘ programmes ’ with a defined beginning and end ”
SUPPLY CHAIN
clients are looking for our help to co-create , co-execute and co-operate business transformation solutions .
What are the biggest challenges of early-stage transformation ? The biggest challenges are clarity of focus , executive alignment and how business-led the change is .
With regard to focus , many companies want to set an ambitious and broad transformation agenda , but success requires a do-less-but-better discipline . It ’ s better to focus on fewer initiatives in the early stages of the journey and drive change and impact along the way .
Executive misalignment at the beginning of a transformation can also be a big risk and a drag on pace of change . It ’ s critical to understand the diverse needs and priorities of executive stakeholders , and to make sure those are reflected in a transformation ‘ North Star ’ that is broadly communicated and understood .
Lastly , while technology is foundational to supply chain transformation success , an essential operating principle is that all work must be business-led and IT-enabled . Leaders all instinctively know this but it can be unbelievably tempting to jump to technology solutions before the business transformation work is complete .
Do the challenges vary from client to client ? Business transformation work is so challenging because every company is different . There ’ s no silver-bullet playbook . An approach that ’ s a smashing success at one company can fail spectacularly at the next . We often see client execs who have achieved great success at one organisation , only to be bewildered when that same approach doesn ’ t work at all at their next company .
“ Gone are the days of business transformation ‘ programmes ’ with a defined beginning and end ”
JONATHAN WRIGHT SUPPLY CHAIN CONSULTING GLOBAL MANAGING PARTNER , IBM
The challenges vary , and business transformation must be a customised journey tailored to the unique needs , priorities and business outcomes of the client . We find that companies who have been highly successful in the past tend to struggle more with change . There ’ s a temptation to avoid change and go back to how things worked in the good old days . This doesn ’ t work .
Our role as trusted consulting partners is to help clients get comfortable with having one foot in today , and one foot in tomorrow .
50 April 2022