Challenges
Troubled companies, of course, need to transform themselves. But so do the world's most successful companies. Apple's greatness is due to its multiple reinventions. Microsoft will require a transformation to counteract Google, and Google continues to look for opportunities to refashion itself.
Many major change efforts do not succeed. Our experience is that the root causes of failure are rarely unique. There are some common pitfalls that, in most cases of failure, were simply not attended to sufficiently:
Insufficient knowledge and understanding of the facts and key constraints
Lack of engagement and alignment of the senior team
Managing the effort like a set of initiatives versus an integrated program
Forgetting to go slightly slower, to go a lot faster
Forgetting the customer
Targeting too much of the benefit to occur in the out-years
Lack of transparency and clear ownership of milestones / targets
Organizational issues such as change management, culture, and capabilities not addressed head on
Declaring victory too soon: failing to follow through and track promised changes
Leading a transformation requires specific and acute focus on avoiding these pitfalls. It also requires rising above the management level to inspire the organization in the case for change and to lead them through it. But, this is not a black art: armed with the knowledge of what is required and the pitfalls, a committed management team can and will succeed.
BCG Competencies
Over the last five years, BCG has actively supported transformations in every major industry around the world. More than 50 percent of our work is related to collaborating with CEOs to help drive significant, accelerated change.
Many of the CEOs and management teams we have worked with are willing to talk to CEOs of companies that are at the beginning of their transformations about what they had to do to succeed. They can speak about what it was like to collaborate with BCG, but they can also address what the change required internally: how they motivated their teams, how they ensured ownership and commitment, and how they made sure the efforts translated into real results—results that the organization owned and sustained after BCG was no longer there.
If you would like a confidential, introductory conversation with us about transforming your organization, please reach out to Steve Gunby, our global leader for Transformation, or any of our global practice area leaders. If you think a private conversation with a CEO who has gone through a transformation would be helpful, please reach out to us as well.