Over 60% of Transformations Fail

Large technology projects are often described as transformation projects. These projects significantly change the way organisations conduct their business and how work gets done. Unfortunately, the reality is that the success rate of transformations is less than 40%. Why do so many transformations fail? There are many common barriers to success. Many organisations have learnt to overcome these barriers and improve their success rates. In this article we discuss the top ten barriers to transformation and strategies organisations have used to overcome them.

Discovering IT Value

Some commonly heard complaints about IT are ‘we are spending too much on IT’, or ‘IT is a black-hole’. While IT aspires to become a strategic business partner, business folks complain about the lack of trust between IT and business or the lack of a common language between the two.

Some commonly heard complaints about IT are ‘we are spending too much on IT’, or ‘IT is a black-hole’. While IT aspires to become a strategic business partner, business folks complain about the lack of trust between IT and business or the lack of a common language between the two. Business does not know if IT is doing a good job and many IT leaders cannot communicate how they are creating value for the business.

A book by Hunter and Westerman, "Real Business of IT" provides a four step process for finding and communicating IT value. I thought I would share their key ideas.

Often new and aspiring CIOs ask advice on how they can move ahead. Recently, there was an interesting discussion on LinkedIn on this topic. The discussion was started by a newly promoted CIO and a lot of advice was given by many CIOs and ex-CIOs. There are many words of wisdom that are worth sharing, which will not only help CIOs but also aspiring CIOs. 

‘Promote’ Yourself

In Michael Watkins’s book ‘The first 90 days’ he advises functional leaders who are moving to executive roles to ‘promote’ themselves. This means stop thinking yourself as a functional leader e.g. Applications Manager, or Infrastructure Manager or an expert and realise that your role is now a broader leadership role. This new role has different demands and expectations than the old role. As an executive, you are now part of the business leadership team and not just the technology leadership team. 

When companies announce technology deals both the company and the vendor are keen to describe the deal as a partnership and not a transaction.  This is because a partnership sounds more strategic. There is hope that this relationship between the company and the vendor can create some long lasting value or mutual gain, but the reality soon bites. The relationship soon changes from a partnership to transacting, which often leads to bickering and disappointment. Papers regularly report stories of long term sourcing or services partnerships that are not renewed or are cut down in size. This makes us wonder if the vendor partnership is simply just a myth.

As I wrote in a previous article, strategy in many organisations just adorns bookshelves. However, a strategic plan is more than just a document. It is the shared understanding and common vision of the stakeholders along with the passion of IT leaders, which brings strategy to life. We can say the strategy is truly adopted, when people understand the strategic direction and make every day decisions (what, how and when) in context of the overall direction.