As many as 50% of organizational change projects don’t achieve their objectives, and with large-scale transformation programs, the failure rate jumps to 75%. BCG’s change management consulting services help clients beat these odds.
Organizations that excel at change management—particularly when launching business-wide transformation—can achieve vital goals such as fueling growth, boosting shareholder returns, and driving innovation. But equally important, by strengthening their change management muscles, they can keep reinventing themselves as new opportunities or challenges arise. And that adaptability gives them a sharp competitive edge.
Yet common stumbling blocks—especially a lack of clear milestones and objectives and insufficient commitment from senior management—prevent many companies from mastering the art of organizational change. To avoid these stumbling blocks, BCG helps companies design their change management strategy.
Our global network of change management consultants has helped clients across diverse industries and regions achieve significant performance improvements from their transformation programs:
50%+ increase in leadership capability development
40%+ greater effectiveness in leaders’ ways of working
75% reduction in the number of change resistors and a 30% increase in the number of change champions
50%+ increase in collaboration across the organization
50%+ improvement in time to new-market entry
110%+ proven realization of change programs’ desired impacts
We help clients achieve such results by enabling them to meet four imperatives in change management and by taking a science-based, holistic approach to change management consulting; deploying a proprietary suite of change management tools; and providing comprehensive support through a unique coalition focused on strategic change initiatives.
The success of any organizational change program relies on a company’s ability to meet the four imperatives. We help clients do so along the three journeys—leader, program, and people—that unfold during the life cycle of a transformation:
Our approach to change management is deeply rooted in behavioral science—including insights from psychology, cognitive science, and social science on how people make choices and build positive habits. Through our Smart Simplicity methodology, we show clients how to shape contextual factors in their organization (such as incentive programs) to encourage the behaviors needed to deliver measurable improvements in performance.
Our Smart Simplicity methodology is among the many reasons that ALM Intelligence named BCG as the top communications and change management consulting provider worldwide.
ALM Intelligence also singled us out for our holistic approach to change management, concluding that our change management “portfolio of complementary frameworks, solutions, and services remains grounded in the scientific rigor and discipline that is BCG’s signature . . . [and enables] leaders, teams, and individuals to act with agency and purpose in the workplace.”
Our change management methodology is powered by a battle-tested suite of proprietary tools aimed at supporting clients across the three organizational change management journeys:
Half the battle in transformations is overcoming mental roadblocks to change in the organization. Here’s what leaders can learn from behavioral science to improve the odds of success.
The Brightline Initiative
The Brightline Initiative is dedicated to helping organizations close the gap between strategy design and delivery. The initiative, which grew out of a partnership between BCG and the Project Management Institute, focuses on improving the chances of success of large-scale strategic projects, leading to stronger value creation and greater competitive advantage.
By embracing strong change management principles, an insurer put itself on a growth trajectory—and positioned itself ahead of its predicted timeline to achieve $500 million in cost savings.
An energy company embedded new behaviors and mindsets for sustainable gains—and identified more than a thousand cost-saving initiatives.
A government agency partnered with BCG to design and implement a new service delivery model—which delivered a 15% increase in productivity.
A pharma company streamlined operations and improved its return for investors—while delivering efficiency savings totaling $1.6 billion.
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This corporate function does best if it has the right amount of centralization and its role evolves during transformations.
