In recent weeks, I have been asked a few times…‘What is Business Transformation?’
This is a really good question, as I have had several discussions with people of late around this, mainly where they focus on a specific element of it (financial tools, HR processes and systems, digital etc.) whereas my scope is the entire business, including the aforementioned.
Focus on one area is great, and often detailed specific skills are needed to deliver that, but before a laser focus is initiated, surely it’s best to review the whole picture first, identify the biggest benefit, the quick wins, and then dive into the detail?
The dictionary definition of ‘Transformation’ is:
transformation
[ˌtran(t)sfərˈmāSH(ə)n ]
NOUN
1. A thorough or dramatic change in form or appearance.
This is very aligned to how I see transformation in the business world…
My business was started out of the Covid pandemic, at a time when many businesses were forced to change how they operate in order to deal with a rapidly changing commercial landscape that they saw in front of them. However, high performance organisations do not wait for change to be forced upon them, but are constantly adapting and evolving in order to stay ahead of the competition, and develop in an ever-changing world –
death, taxes and change are the only 3 constants in life…

… and the only way to not be killed by the lion that’s chasing you,
is not to try and out-run the lion,
but just run faster than the guy next to you!
One different way that I have started presenting my role, as a business transformation specialist, is as a partner, who helps businesses deliver their strategic plan.
All strategic plans involve change (I have never seen one that said, “in 3-5 years’ time we wish to be exactly the same as we are today” – but maybe they do exist?) and as we all know, writing the plan is relatively easy, compared to its delivery.
The word ‘dramatic’ in the dictionary definition, is one that needs to be correctly interpreted. I come across many businesses that are quite comfortable with where they are and want relatively little change. Common feedback is that they “aren’t ‘broken’ but just need a little tweaking”.
I would always recommend that independent eyes are put across any business, as all too often there is much that can be improved and small cracks will grow, causing much harm to the business if not dealt with (see ITV’s Undercover Boss for examples of where business leaders are completely missing big issues in their business – and no, the solution is not as I have seen in the first 3 episodes, where they just seem to throw money at the problem). ‘Dramatic’ may sometimes be the outcome of a change program, but baby steps is often the way to achieve it – small controlled steps, taking place in quick succession, with proper review and adaptation following each change, thus minimising risk, increasing speed and making it more ‘people friendly’ – few people actually like change, so teaching people to learn to enjoy, or at least accept it, is crucial. The more often you achieve change successfully, the less scary it becomes 😊
With big change comes big risk. It is often the reason why businesses are afraid of change and prefer to stay ‘safe’ and ‘comfortable’ doing what they have always done – big change has been tried before, it failed, and it hurt… so it isn’t tried again. This is very wrong and will ultimately lead to failure of the business (see much of UK manufacturing, high street retail and other sectors for examples) – no organisation can survive without adapting and evolving, and being agile and efficient at doing this, puts any organisation ahead of the competition.
Transformational change is like many aspects of the working world, it’s not about what you do, but how you do it that makes all the difference. This is one of my USP’s – being able to deliver change in a robust sustainable manner – not just advise on how to do it, actually make it happen. The other key attribute is the ability to be able to see the opportunities in the first place (learning to see – the first step of lean).
So, in summary…
“Business Transformation” is about helping a business achieve its strategic plan
- by planning and delivering lots of small changes in a quick and efficient manner that the workforce buy into
- enabling any business to be better than their competitors
- gaining increasing competitive advantage
- delivering better value and service to its customers.