Breaking the Transformation Mould

By Helen Ashton, founder Shape Beyond

What is there not to love about a transformational programme?

What is there not to love about a transformational programme? For a business in a structurally challenged market, one that is underperforming expectations or generally in need of a shake-up, the launch of a business transformation programme signals the start of something big. Things are changing, there is momentum, and excitement ahead for everyone involved.

The pandemic has further invigorated the need for businesses to transform just to survive in the new never normal world. Currently, over 70% of businesses have a transformation programme in place globally at a cost of more than £2tn per year.

As a business stalls, and performance dips, the lure of a transformation programme becomes the obvious silver bullet to get it back on track. Digital-first companies are 64% more likely to achieve their business goals, and digitally mature companies are 23% more profitable than their less mature peers. Who wouldn’t be tempted by the myriad of positive stats to launch a transformation programme if you haven’t already?

However, the reality of making the transition is stark, with over 80% of transformational objectives only partially or never being delivered. Regardless, organisations are still willing to bet their future and huge levels of upfront investment on this slim chance of success.

Over the last 30 years, I have had hands-on, in the trenches involvement in many significant scale transformations, of which my decade in Financial Services provided my most intense experience. I have witnessed a whole spectrum of outcomes from programmes ranging from energised, engaged and extraordinarily successful through to years of effort delivering absolutely nothing for the £millions spent. This sounds dramatic, however, my experience is backed up by research that shows 50% of all transformation programmes fizzle out completely and deliver nothing.

There are many reasons for this staggeringly high failure rate for traditional transformation programmes and these are well documented. Interestingly, the key ingredients for success are much harder to find.

Why do so many transformational programmes fail?

Over 80% of transformational programmes fail to deliver on their original objectives costing organisations trillions of pounds globally every year, yet, most organisations currently have a transformation programme ongoing or are thinking of starting one.

There are many well documented reasons why traditional transformation programmes fail.

In my experience, these fall into two main categories. Firstly, and most importantly, people-related challenges and secondly, the technical approach to planning and execution of the programme.

Most failed programmes experience a mix of issues across both categories:

People, purpose & culture

2. A vision which lacks deep emotional purpose will not create sufficient engagement to energise people to commit to delivering the change. A change programme feeds off the energy, skills and tenacity of teams and this commitment to the cause can quickly ebb away when the going gets tough, which undoubtedly it will at some stage. Emotional engagement to a greater cause will stand the test of a transformation in a way that the promise of more money for shareholders or lower costs never will.
3. A misaligned leadership team delivering mixed messages and commitment levels to the programme will struggle to create the necessary environment for change to thrive. Alignment of a leadership team, however, is not simply a lack of active disagreement to the programme. Leadership teams need to understand fully the drivers for change, what it means for them and their teams and be prepared to stand up for the cause. Any divergence from this will breed suspicion, impact engagement levels, and even cause rebellion amongst the troops.
4. A transformational programme leader who is not senior enough or lacks leadership skills will struggle to secure the momentum required to deliver a programme successfully. Leadership is an essential ingredient of change and must be led and be seen to be led from the most senior levels of the organisation with the full support of the top team. Equally, there is the necessity to have a respected leader rather than an experienced programme manager in this vital role. Success comes from winning hearts, engagement across all stakeholder groups and alignment of incentives. The ability to accelerate and decelerate the programme in line with the ebbs and flows of the everyday business demands and the levels of change fatigue being experienced is also fundamental to avoiding the programme imploding.
5. It is essential to recognise that the skills required in a business post-transformation will be different to those which exist at the start. It can be easy to underestimate the shift in skillsets, capacity and experience that will be required in a post transformed world. You then have a new shiny vehicle without the expertise to drive it.
6. A traditional transformational programme is massively energy consuming, resource-heavy and continues for a protracted length of time often with little benefits seen for a long time. The jaw-dropping costs that can be estimated for such a programme upfront, often result in a chipping of resources to come to an agreed budget that stakeholders are willing to accept for the potential returns. Instead of reducing the scope of the programme in line with the reduced budget, often less resource is expected to complete the original scope of work resulting in a shortage of skills, attention to detail and ultimately fatigue and stress. Most transformation programmes also go over budget, overrun their schedules and even when they are completed, leave defects or inadequacies post-implementation. Without the necessary resources to settle the programme into a steady state, it is highly likely that it will never get there.

Planning & execution

1. A traditional consulting approach to planning a transformation programme envisions a static endpoint and an intricate, intertwined path to get there. This approach demands a disproportionate amount of upfront investment well ahead of any value being created and change controls prohibit plans from flexing with the changing environment or learnings gained along the way. This approach is suited to a steady state, hierarchical environment with a high level of certainty that the environment around them will not change! There are not too many organisations which now fall into this category!
2. A programme which focuses on cost reduction rather than prioritised opportunities for growth, customer engagement and value creation dumbs down the potential of the opportunity, stifling innovation, imagination, and customer centricity. Focusing on growth and possibility generates energy, engagement, and a desire to be part of something bigger, all essential to a successful programme of change.
3. Too little or too much planning is equally damaging for a programme. Businesses either plan for months in minute detail or they jump straight in to work on the sexy stuff, such as analytics or digital, without focusing on the foundational enablers.
4. Too much focus on programme activity rather than the outcomes to be delivered can seriously divert a programme down a blind alley. It is amazing how easily focus can shift through overzealous project management to ragging and ticking off activities on the plan rather than keeping sight of delivery of the outcomes identified as indicators of success.
5. If what is measured gets done, then pinpointing and tracking the right KPIs for a programme is an essential part of delivering a successful outcome. Tracking of the wrong KPI’s, way too many or way too few will all divert attention into areas which do not deliver optimal value, wasting energy and resources and causing frustrations within the team.

So, if we have such clarity on the pitfalls of transformation programmes, why are failure rates getting worse rather than better as we digest these learnings? Perhaps we need to break out of the transformation mould and try something new?

Building an agile organisation to survive in a never normal world

The most successful agile businesses have a small number of key ingredients in common that form the DNA which delivers their agility and success in our continually changing environment. Their specific culture, purpose and energy is the most important ingredient. This is the power that enables everything else to work. It is the fuel that drives the car. The energy that makes an athlete move. Once this essential ingredient is in place then there are two other factors than can enhance performance. The first is agile technology and the second is agile data.

1.An agile, purpose driven culture

A continually changing environment, the introduction of disruptive technologies and the democratisation of data all contribute to the necessity for a highly dynamic organisational design. We are seeing businesses shift away from traditional top down hierarchical, rigid, and bureaucratic structures to more flexible, entrepreneurial, devolved, shape shifting designs supplemented by servant leadership. These businesses embrace flexible workforces, flat structures, open physical and virtual environments, active partnerships, best practice sharing and cohesive teams. This has the benefit of agility but also harnesses the strengths of the influential millennial workforce.

The most effective nimble and agile organisations that I have worked in embrace this devolved flexibility as a way of most effectively delivering their purpose, the essence of why they exist. Resources are allocated optimally to achieve this purpose and colleagues are encouraged to seize every opportunity to support its advancement creating energy, meaning and connection throughout the organisation.

If you have not seen the power of purpose at work, you could be forgiven for thinking that it is soft and fluffy, instead it makes hard business sense. Research conclusively shows that companies that focus on the “Why” they exist and organise themselves in a devolved and trust-based way, deliver higher revenue growth, lower cost growth and a quicker time to market.

So, if this purpose and agile driven culture is so essential for future success, why do so few organisations have it? The difficulty comes with making the cultural shift. The culture of a business is made up of a set of powerful forces that reinforce the organisational status quo embedded over many years. People generally are fearful of change and therefore as agility is defined as the capacity and openness to change, overcoming this cultural hurdle is key to a successful transition. And it is not easy. It can take a huge amount of effort and commitment to start to see movement but when you do, the results are spectacular.

And it is important to remember that a business is not bureaucratic one day and then agile the next. Many of those who have made the successful transition have started with purpose and then established an agile approach in one discipline, often technology. The approach has then evolved from there as silos are broken down and colleagues engaged.

As with any cultural shift, evolution will be over many years, however the starting place is purpose.

2. Agile technology

Customers more than ever demand a friction free, omni-channel experience, tailored to their own personal needs. Delivering this with legacy technology is difficult, slow, and costly. To match the shifting demands of customers, businesses need evolving technology architecture, systems and tools which allow flexibility, scalability, and resilience. To achieve this, the nimblest businesses have either launched with cloud-based flexibility and scalability or more established businesses have replatformed onto a microservices architecture with cloud based, plug, and play software. This enables iterations of modules to be made simultaneously which massively increases the pace of development to provide customers with compelling and engaging experiences.

No doubt the cost and business disruption which comes with a system replatforming programme is significant however the benefits in terms of flexibility and total cost of ownership are invaluable.

Again, this shift is a multi-year and will be costly however committing to the transition is essential to delivering an environment where an agile culture can thrive.

3. Agile data

Often businesses have a wealth of data but insight to support management decision making is hard to come by. Democratisation of data to enable everyone in the organisation to access the information they need to make informed decisions is key to developing agility and stamping on bureaucracy. Data is an essential ingredient to understanding shifting customer needs and whether those needs are being met.

To make this transition, data must be seen as a key business asset. It should be nurtured, standardised, secure, and accessible to all. Often a data warehouse is owned by a specific department in an organisation and its usage is restricted or there are bottlenecks to extract data, both of these challenges must be overcome.

Everyone in the organisation must be encouraged to have a data driven mindset allowing everyone to access, analyse and report on insights. This facilitates the breakdown of cross functional boundaries and shortens the lead time to value creation.

In practical terms, it is worth being realistic here that this transition is also not quick. Creation of a well-managed data warehouse or more latterly, data lakes or data spines can be fraught with challenges and encouraging, training, and supporting colleagues to become data literate and to rely of data to support decision making is a shift which can take years to achieve even partially.

Nevertheless, the journey to full data democratisation is always going to be a never ending one. So again, here you just need to make a start by establishing and filling key capability gaps to support your data journey, identifying and delivering quick wins and showcasing commitment to the cause from the top. An agile plan to enable learning as you go, celebrating success and incentivisation will also be key to embedding data fluency across the organisation.

And of course, this data is the lifeblood of the world of AI and analytics which has the capability to pre-empt changing customer behaviours in real-time, streamline processes, enhance personalised experiences and endless other opportunities for value creation.

Building resilient foundations

Change is now constant. Businesses need high levels of agility to flex to adapt to their ever-changing surroundings. To achieve this, an agile culture is the founding principle supported by agile systems and agile data. This delivers flexibility anchored through resilient foundations.

To make this shift, it is understandable that established organisations may consider a highly structured transformation as the way forward, however we see a completely different approach to success, grounded from our experience in successful change programmes in entrepreneurial, phenomenally successful businesses who are navigating the changing environment not only with relative ease but also as an opportunity to further build distance between themselves and their competitors.

Helen Ashton, digital, retail and transformational change expert

Helen’s experience spans 25 years of transforming complex business in retail, business services and financial services.

She is one of only a handful of female executives who have sat on both public listed company boards and those of private equity portfolio companies over the last decade.

Helen’s most recent roles have been Chief Executive Officer of JLA (a Cinven, private equity-backed portfolio company), and Chief Financial Officer of ASOS plc. Earlier in her career, Ashton also held senior roles with Capquest, Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays, and Asda.

Helen’s unique, disruptive approach to transforming businesses is a game changer for organisations looking to themselves disrupt in today’s never normal world.

Helen is straight talking, genuine and a down-to-earth Northerner, who balances her professional life alongside raising five children. She believes in a fairer and more inclusive business world and supports this ethos through a variety of different causes.

Helen founded challenger management consultancy Shape Beyond in September 2021 and was appointed as a non-executive director of JD Sports Fashion Plc in November 2021.

By Helen Ashton, founder Shape Beyond

What is there not to love about a transformational programme?

What is there not to love about a transformational programme? For a business in a structurally challenged market, one that is underperforming expectations or generally in need of a shake-up, the launch of a business transformation programme signals the start of something big. Things are changing, there is momentum, and excitement ahead for everyone involved.

The pandemic has further invigorated the need for businesses to transform just to survive in the new never normal world. Currently, over 70% of businesses have a transformation programme in place globally at a cost of more than £2tn per year.

As a business stalls, and performance dips, the lure of a transformation programme becomes the obvious silver bullet to get it back on track. Digital-first companies are 64% more likely to achieve their business goals, and digitally mature companies are 23% more profitable than their less mature peers. Who wouldn’t be tempted by the myriad of positive stats to launch a transformation programme if you haven’t already?

However, the reality of making the transition is stark, with over 80% of transformational objectives only partially or never being delivered. Regardless, organisations are still willing to bet their future and huge levels of upfront investment on this slim chance of success.

Over the last 30 years, I have had hands-on, in the trenches involvement in many significant scale transformations, of which my decade in Financial Services provided my most intense experience. I have witnessed a whole spectrum of outcomes from programmes ranging from energised, engaged and extraordinarily successful through to years of effort delivering absolutely nothing for the £millions spent. This sounds dramatic, however, my experience is backed up by research that shows 50% of all transformation programmes fizzle out completely and deliver nothing.

There are many reasons for this staggeringly high failure rate for traditional transformation programmes and these are well documented. Interestingly, the key ingredients for success are much harder to find.

Why do so many transformational programmes fail?

Over 80% of transformational programmes fail to deliver on their original objectives costing organisations trillions of pounds globally every year, yet, most organisations currently have a transformation programme ongoing or are thinking of starting one.

There are many well documented reasons why traditional transformation programmes fail.

In my experience, these fall into two main categories. Firstly, and most importantly, people-related challenges and secondly, the technical approach to planning and execution of the programme.

Most failed programmes experience a mix of issues across both categories:

People, purpose & culture

2. A vision which lacks deep emotional purpose will not create sufficient engagement to energise people to commit to delivering the change. A change programme feeds off the energy, skills and tenacity of teams and this commitment to the cause can quickly ebb away when the going gets tough, which undoubtedly it will at some stage. Emotional engagement to a greater cause will stand the test of a transformation in a way that the promise of more money for shareholders or lower costs never will.
3. A misaligned leadership team delivering mixed messages and commitment levels to the programme will struggle to create the necessary environment for change to thrive. Alignment of a leadership team, however, is not simply a lack of active disagreement to the programme. Leadership teams need to understand fully the drivers for change, what it means for them and their teams and be prepared to stand up for the cause. Any divergence from this will breed suspicion, impact engagement levels, and even cause rebellion amongst the troops.
4. A transformational programme leader who is not senior enough or lacks leadership skills will struggle to secure the momentum required to deliver a programme successfully. Leadership is an essential ingredient of change and must be led and be seen to be led from the most senior levels of the organisation with the full support of the top team. Equally, there is the necessity to have a respected leader rather than an experienced programme manager in this vital role. Success comes from winning hearts, engagement across all stakeholder groups and alignment of incentives. The ability to accelerate and decelerate the programme in line with the ebbs and flows of the everyday business demands and the levels of change fatigue being experienced is also fundamental to avoiding the programme imploding.
5. It is essential to recognise that the skills required in a business post-transformation will be different to those which exist at the start. It can be easy to underestimate the shift in skillsets, capacity and experience that will be required in a post transformed world. You then have a new shiny vehicle without the expertise to drive it.
6. A traditional transformational programme is massively energy consuming, resource-heavy and continues for a protracted length of time often with little benefits seen for a long time. The jaw-dropping costs that can be estimated for such a programme upfront, often result in a chipping of resources to come to an agreed budget that stakeholders are willing to accept for the potential returns. Instead of reducing the scope of the programme in line with the reduced budget, often less resource is expected to complete the original scope of work resulting in a shortage of skills, attention to detail and ultimately fatigue and stress. Most transformation programmes also go over budget, overrun their schedules and even when they are completed, leave defects or inadequacies post-implementation. Without the necessary resources to settle the programme into a steady state, it is highly likely that it will never get there.

Planning & execution

1. A traditional consulting approach to planning a transformation programme envisions a static endpoint and an intricate, intertwined path to get there. This approach demands a disproportionate amount of upfront investment well ahead of any value being created and change controls prohibit plans from flexing with the changing environment or learnings gained along the way. This approach is suited to a steady state, hierarchical environment with a high level of certainty that the environment around them will not change! There are not too many organisations which now fall into this category!
2. A programme which focuses on cost reduction rather than prioritised opportunities for growth, customer engagement and value creation dumbs down the potential of the opportunity, stifling innovation, imagination, and customer centricity. Focusing on growth and possibility generates energy, engagement, and a desire to be part of something bigger, all essential to a successful programme of change.
3. Too little or too much planning is equally damaging for a programme. Businesses either plan for months in minute detail or they jump straight in to work on the sexy stuff, such as analytics or digital, without focusing on the foundational enablers.
4. Too much focus on programme activity rather than the outcomes to be delivered can seriously divert a programme down a blind alley. It is amazing how easily focus can shift through overzealous project management to ragging and ticking off activities on the plan rather than keeping sight of delivery of the outcomes identified as indicators of success.
5. If what is measured gets done, then pinpointing and tracking the right KPIs for a programme is an essential part of delivering a successful outcome. Tracking of the wrong KPI’s, way too many or way too few will all divert attention into areas which do not deliver optimal value, wasting energy and resources and causing frustrations within the team.

So, if we have such clarity on the pitfalls of transformation programmes, why are failure rates getting worse rather than better as we digest these learnings? Perhaps we need to break out of the transformation mould and try something new?

Building an agile organisation to survive in a never normal world

The most successful agile businesses have a small number of key ingredients in common that form the DNA which delivers their agility and success in our continually changing environment. Their specific culture, purpose and energy is the most important ingredient. This is the power that enables everything else to work. It is the fuel that drives the car. The energy that makes an athlete move. Once this essential ingredient is in place then there are two other factors than can enhance performance. The first is agile technology and the second is agile data.

1.An agile, purpose driven culture

A continually changing environment, the introduction of disruptive technologies and the democratisation of data all contribute to the necessity for a highly dynamic organisational design. We are seeing businesses shift away from traditional top down hierarchical, rigid, and bureaucratic structures to more flexible, entrepreneurial, devolved, shape shifting designs supplemented by servant leadership. These businesses embrace flexible workforces, flat structures, open physical and virtual environments, active partnerships, best practice sharing and cohesive teams. This has the benefit of agility but also harnesses the strengths of the influential millennial workforce.

The most effective nimble and agile organisations that I have worked in embrace this devolved flexibility as a way of most effectively delivering their purpose, the essence of why they exist. Resources are allocated optimally to achieve this purpose and colleagues are encouraged to seize every opportunity to support its advancement creating energy, meaning and connection throughout the organisation.

If you have not seen the power of purpose at work, you could be forgiven for thinking that it is soft and fluffy, instead it makes hard business sense. Research conclusively shows that companies that focus on the “Why” they exist and organise themselves in a devolved and trust-based way, deliver higher revenue growth, lower cost growth and a quicker time to market.

So, if this purpose and agile driven culture is so essential for future success, why do so few organisations have it? The difficulty comes with making the cultural shift. The culture of a business is made up of a set of powerful forces that reinforce the organisational status quo embedded over many years. People generally are fearful of change and therefore as agility is defined as the capacity and openness to change, overcoming this cultural hurdle is key to a successful transition. And it is not easy. It can take a huge amount of effort and commitment to start to see movement but when you do, the results are spectacular.

And it is important to remember that a business is not bureaucratic one day and then agile the next. Many of those who have made the successful transition have started with purpose and then established an agile approach in one discipline, often technology. The approach has then evolved from there as silos are broken down and colleagues engaged.

As with any cultural shift, evolution will be over many years, however the starting place is purpose.

2. Agile technology

Customers more than ever demand a friction free, omni-channel experience, tailored to their own personal needs. Delivering this with legacy technology is difficult, slow, and costly. To match the shifting demands of customers, businesses need evolving technology architecture, systems and tools which allow flexibility, scalability, and resilience. To achieve this, the nimblest businesses have either launched with cloud-based flexibility and scalability or more established businesses have replatformed onto a microservices architecture with cloud based, plug, and play software. This enables iterations of modules to be made simultaneously which massively increases the pace of development to provide customers with compelling and engaging experiences.

No doubt the cost and business disruption which comes with a system replatforming programme is significant however the benefits in terms of flexibility and total cost of ownership are invaluable.

Again, this shift is a multi-year and will be costly however committing to the transition is essential to delivering an environment where an agile culture can thrive.

3. Agile data

Often businesses have a wealth of data but insight to support management decision making is hard to come by. Democratisation of data to enable everyone in the organisation to access the information they need to make informed decisions is key to developing agility and stamping on bureaucracy. Data is an essential ingredient to understanding shifting customer needs and whether those needs are being met.

To make this transition, data must be seen as a key business asset. It should be nurtured, standardised, secure, and accessible to all. Often a data warehouse is owned by a specific department in an organisation and its usage is restricted or there are bottlenecks to extract data, both of these challenges must be overcome.

Everyone in the organisation must be encouraged to have a data driven mindset allowing everyone to access, analyse and report on insights. This facilitates the breakdown of cross functional boundaries and shortens the lead time to value creation.

In practical terms, it is worth being realistic here that this transition is also not quick. Creation of a well-managed data warehouse or more latterly, data lakes or data spines can be fraught with challenges and encouraging, training, and supporting colleagues to become data literate and to rely of data to support decision making is a shift which can take years to achieve even partially.

Nevertheless, the journey to full data democratisation is always going to be a never ending one. So again, here you just need to make a start by establishing and filling key capability gaps to support your data journey, identifying and delivering quick wins and showcasing commitment to the cause from the top. An agile plan to enable learning as you go, celebrating success and incentivisation will also be key to embedding data fluency across the organisation.

And of course, this data is the lifeblood of the world of AI and analytics which has the capability to pre-empt changing customer behaviours in real-time, streamline processes, enhance personalised experiences and endless other opportunities for value creation.

Building resilient foundations

Change is now constant. Businesses need high levels of agility to flex to adapt to their ever-changing surroundings. To achieve this, an agile culture is the founding principle supported by agile systems and agile data. This delivers flexibility anchored through resilient foundations.

To make this shift, it is understandable that established organisations may consider a highly structured transformation as the way forward, however we see a completely different approach to success, grounded from our experience in successful change programmes in entrepreneurial, phenomenally successful businesses who are navigating the changing environment not only with relative ease but also as an opportunity to further build distance between themselves and their competitors.

Helen Ashton, digital, retail and transformational change expert

Helen’s experience spans 25 years of transforming complex business in retail, business services and financial services.

She is one of only a handful of female executives who have sat on both public listed company boards and those of private equity portfolio companies over the last decade.

Helen’s most recent roles have been Chief Executive Officer of JLA (a Cinven, private equity-backed portfolio company), and Chief Financial Officer of ASOS plc. Earlier in her career, Ashton also held senior roles with Capquest, Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays, and Asda.

Helen’s unique, disruptive approach to transforming businesses is a game changer for organisations looking to themselves disrupt in today’s never normal world.

Helen is straight talking, genuine and a down-to-earth Northerner, who balances her professional life alongside raising five children. She believes in a fairer and more inclusive business world and supports this ethos through a variety of different causes.

Helen founded challenger management consultancy Shape Beyond in September 2021 and was appointed as a non-executive director of JD Sports Fashion Plc in November 2021.