﻿{"id":9814,"date":"2021-01-07T06:00:38","date_gmt":"2021-01-07T06:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/klassacademy.com\/?p=9814"},"modified":"2021-12-30T19:25:54","modified_gmt":"2021-12-30T19:25:54","slug":"business-transformation-pitfalls-the-secret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klassacademy.com\/index.php\/2021\/01\/07\/business-transformation-pitfalls-the-secret\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Transformation Pitfalls"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The larger and more complex the company, the more are the business transformation pitfalls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Having driven and followed large-scale business transformations of leading industrial companies, I have seen several successful projects with positive impact on both financial results and the customer experience. Then again, I have witnessed several others who failed to bring the expected business outcome and created enormous stresses on the organisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In this article I am discussing a few key reasons that make business transformation a trying exercise, and highlighting the pitfalls which companies should avoid.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Change is a chance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>2020 was an exceptional year. <strong>Exciting changes gained momentum<\/strong> in most industrial sectors; in life sciences; energy; machinery; transportation; food and beverage; and in retail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Covid19 has accelerated the changes<\/strong>. Whether it was about the operations, the retail, the communication or even learning and people development, change became inevitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The seeds of the current development are deep-rooted in the fast growth of the 90\u2019s. <strong>Companies<\/strong><em> <\/em>grew large via mergers, acquisitions and rapid expansion within the emerging countries. Growth brought prosperity and high living standards, but also planted some of the issues companies are facing these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Adaptability is a must<\/strong>. Yet, many companies, which benefitted from the affluence, including those who set industry benchmarks in the past, are on the rack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>What are the reasons hindering these companies to renew their operations?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Inefficient organisation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In the euphoria of growth, companies developed <strong>massive departments<\/strong> without too much care of <strong>organisational efficiencies<\/strong>. Margins were high. Unclear structure and overlapping responsibilities were not a concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Having recognised some inefficiencies, many companies introduced moderate changes, in the early 2000\u2019s. The real breakthrough had to be waited for since changing the \u201cold boy\u2019s\u201d structure required courage and an appealing vision and determination. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>As economies have changed and cost pressure came to the fore, the organisational \u201csilos\u201d became increasingly dysfunctional. &nbsp;Being concerned about their positions, <strong>managers<\/strong> often <strong>fought their peers<\/strong>, <strong>instead of dealing with external risks<\/strong> and elaborating new customer opportunities. Influencing became the norm. Decisions were seemingly made collectively, which, besides being costly, often promoted inadequate decisions. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Fragmented process<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>complex<\/strong> organisational <strong>structure<\/strong> often <strong>obstructed<\/strong> <strong>the smooth flow<\/strong> of the information, services and the transactions, within these companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Not that people were willing to embrace disruptions! &nbsp;<strong>Disruptions emerged<\/strong> since the <strong>operational processes mirrored the disintegrated organisation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>As many departments were involved, <strong>the \u201cend-to-end\u201d processes were not clearly defined,<\/strong> and participants were often driving different agendas. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether it was about the \u201corder to cash\u201d; \u201crequisition to pay\u201d; or \u201crecord to report\u201d processes, the flow was repeatedly interrupted, and the final outcome was beyond expectations. Even if a smaller unit, let\u2019s say a production cell, was operating seamlessly, once other units came into the picture, for example invoicing; disruption could easily prevail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Stakeholders were busy; they did not have the time, nor the possibility to dig into the root causes of the cross-functional process issues, in a meaningful way. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Tax optimisation schemes promoting \u201cprincipal\u201d and \u201ctoller\u201d units gave additional complexity to the already multifaceted operations. &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Inconsistent data<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ownership of enterprise master<\/strong> data often remained <strong>blurred<\/strong> within the companies growing fast through mergers and acquisitions. &nbsp;<strong>Data <\/strong>was managed inconsistently and <strong>quality was insufficiently scrutinised<\/strong>.&nbsp; Involved operations and IT teams haven\u2019t realised the increasing importance of granular data, for a long time. &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Data scrubbing<\/strong> was a painful and time-consuming exercise, r<strong>equiring expertise of both the operations and the data architects<\/strong>.&nbsp; No wonder data cleansing was left behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>As data of the acquired companies was merely \u201ckneaded\u201d into the core business, it created a huge <strong>incomprehensible data mess<\/strong>. &nbsp;Consequently, data with the same \u201clabel\u201d could cover distinct transaction types; or data with a different \u201clabel\u201d could stand for the same kind of transaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The consequences?&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Due to organisational, process and data deficiencies <strong>companies<\/strong> had <strong>limited and retarded visibility<\/strong> of what was really happening inside the company and on the outside markets. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>It became apparent that costs of the operations were high, analytics were time consuming, and various interpretation of data <strong>hindered the effective decision making<\/strong>. Companies have slowly responded to the market changes and have gradually lost competitiveness towards emerging new players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Downturn responses<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In the past decade, it became clear for many companies that it was necessary to <strong>optimise their organisational structure and streamline their processes.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Many of these companies started with \u201c<strong>business transformation<\/strong>\u201d projects before Covid19 affected the economy. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Business transformation had various facets, but within many companies, <strong>the main objective was to reduce costs<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Although many have started with <strong>customer centred initiatives<\/strong>, for example implementing new product lines or redefining sales channels; these initiatives <strong>endured only when the short-term benefits were important enough to cover the costs<\/strong>: a challenging condition for industrial innovations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Expense optimisation measures were basically around 3 main areas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1) Transitioning activities into \u201clow cost\u201d places<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Although the concept of out-, or in-sourcing to low-cost countries has been known since the 90s; the current cost pressure promoted the outsourcing vigorously to the front. Companies created new Shared Services Centres (SSC\u2019s) and moved more activities into existing ones. Given that the cost difference often exceeds 1:4, such labour arbitrage presented companies with a relatively easy \u201cwin\u201d to reduce cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2) Standardising and simplifying the process<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Realising that \u201cseamless flow\u201d is key to productivity and therefore profitability; companies started to look into standardisation opportunities, reduction of process steps and elimination of \u201cwaste\u201d within their processes. To optimise processes \u201clean\u201d principles were applied. The benefit was not only faster transaction processing, but also a reduction in error rates, satisfying internal and external customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3) Introducing systems and digital tools<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Aiming for continuous improvement, companies purchased systems (applications) offering automated transaction processing (workflows). An additional benefit of these tools was the increased visibility of transaction time, quality and costs. The applications offered an understanding of costs, not only at an operational level, but also at a team and individual level; or at product and geographic levels, so far as segmentation criteria were defined and available. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Outcomes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Some <strong>companies <\/strong>succeeded well and <strong>improved operational efficiencies by 20-40%.<\/strong> <strong>Others struggled<\/strong>, not only because the cost cutting did not bring sustainable results, but also because occupational stress dramatically increased, causing <strong>health issues<\/strong> and burn outs for employees, including executives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Several companies drew back their first initiatives and started from scratch after re-evaluating their objectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Business transformation pitfalls to avoid<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Efficiency improvement is undoubtable necessary. What are the pitfalls which cause a slow-down or a failure to the efficiency objective? &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Being distant to the human factor<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Within those companies which struggle with the structural change, <strong>CEOs<\/strong> often <strong>lost engagement of their teams<\/strong>. &nbsp;In pursuit of quick tangible results, they ground to a halt honest feedback and failed to mobilise their people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Insufficient communication and a lack of detailed, people-oriented transition plans created a <strong>fear culture<\/strong>within these companies.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Fear culture<\/strong>, even if it seemingly allows fast change, <strong>hit back<\/strong> in the longer term, not just because CEOs lost their best people, but also because they could not trust the commitment of those who stayed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Being afraid of losing their jobs, <strong>people<\/strong> naturally <strong>hide operational inefficiencies<\/strong> \u2013 the exact problem that created the existing challenges in the first instance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Also, fear<\/strong> blocked creativity, <strong>hindered collaboration<\/strong> and weakened the team mindset, which was absolutely needed to overcome the challenging times. &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Moving activities into low-cost countries<\/strong> is certainly a way to reduce operational costs, if the move is prepared diligently, considering the need of the core and the receiving teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Companies which struggle, have <\/strong><strong>neglected the otherwise important additional transformation costs and looked only into the labour cost only.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Another pitfall was the complete division of the \u201ccore business\u201d from the one taking over the activities. <strong>Eradication of authorities of the core business<\/strong> team <strong>led to frequent disruptions<\/strong> in the preparation, transition and post takeover phases. <strong>Full dependence<\/strong> <strong>from the off-site team<\/strong> represented <strong>financial and business continuity risk<\/strong>, which was not properly assessed and addressed at the preparation phase. &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Floundering companies often failed to address the question of how to mitigate conflict between the transitioning and receiving parties? How to turn the obvious conflict of interest into a meaningful collaboration? How to <strong>create a structure<\/strong> which allows most of the <strong>team to flourish and grow<\/strong>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Fragmentary \u201clean\u201d approach<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Most companies have realised the importance of \u201clean\u201d and have increased their knowledge of process excellence tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Companies which failed, usually focused on optimising the flow within their existing departments instead of mapping it across the value stream, considering all involved participants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Organisational silos<\/strong>, given their management was concerned about the change, often <strong>hindered creation of a clear \u201cend to end\u201d process, <\/strong>thus, optimisation of the value streams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Another issue was that companies often separated their \u201cprocess excellence\u201d teams from their operations, aiming for faster deployment of best practices. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Segregation of \u201cprocess excellence\u201d from operations management was <\/strong>clearly<strong> inefficient<\/strong> and <strong>expensive.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Excelling the process requires in-depth knowledge of the operations that people normally acquire working for years in the operations. Once process people step out from their native value stream, their knowledge rapidly fades. Developing process experts and maintaining their knowledge parallel to the operations folks, added additional costs. Ultimately, this was offset by the savings of the operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>On top of this, as \u201cprocess excellence\u201d people were involved into many initiatives, their <strong>divided focus prevented them promptly addressing improvement opportunities <\/strong>within their native value stream. Loose alignment to the operations objectives often created superfluous conflict within the already challenging environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p> An elusive organisational vision and a disintegrated process excellence view, prevented these companies to capitalise on the lean approach, even if the toolkit and best practices were available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Insufficient business analysis<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Several companies rushed their system implementations in the quest of rapid productivity improvements. <strong>Being desperate about automatization,<\/strong> <strong>they<\/strong> often <strong>overjumped<\/strong> a very important step: <strong>the analysis of the business requirements<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The business requirements were not thoroughly defined, therefore, the newly implemented systems could not bring the expected benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Implementing systems without <\/strong>sufficiently<strong> analysing the process <\/strong>or<strong> implementing a system on a disruptive process was a frustration<\/strong> to everyone participating in such, otherwise strategic undertakings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Another issue with uncircumspect system implementations was the data. &nbsp;When<strong> data is garbage &#8211; automatization does not work<\/strong> or works with limited effect; therefore, digitalisation remained a buzzword within these companies, without truly impacting results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The secret of a successful business transformation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The larger and more complex the company, the bigger the challenge. However, success is possible. Within those companies which succeeded &nbsp;the elements of a successful business transformation toolbox were the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1.Clear organisational vision<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2.Team engagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>3.Well defined cascading objectives<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>4.Incentives promoting the desired outcome&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>5.Clear \u201cEnd to End\u201d ownership<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>6.\u201cProcess excellence\u201d aligned to the Operations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>7.Thorough business analysis prior to system implementation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>8.Clean and consistent data<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>9.Visibility through consistent KPI tracking<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>10.Agile execution<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The secret of a truly successful \u201ctransformation\u201d is to <strong>find the equilibrium between pursuit of the changes at speed, yet prepare the changes with ample attention to details.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In driving changes, the human factor plays the most important role whether it is about defining the lean end-to-end process, or implementing systems with quality data, or in leading companies through the rapid changes of the 4th industrial revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>People are important<\/strong>. The key to any successful business transformation is offering people purpose and nurturing their competency pool. Once engaged, <strong>adaptable people will<\/strong> <strong>build an adaptable organisation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>For more insight, write <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/klassacademy.com\/index.php\/author\/klara_editor\/\" target=\"_blank\">me<\/a> at klara.boor@klassacademy.com or on <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/klaraboor-digital2020\/\" target=\"_blank\">LinkedIn.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><div class=\"gdlr-space\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a style=\"color: #a4a4a4;\" href=\"https:\/\/klassacademy.com\/index.php\/2021\/01\/07\/business-transformation-pitfalls\/\"> In this article I am discussing a few key reasons that make business transformation a trying exercise, and highlighting the pitfalls which companies should avoid\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":9815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[94,102,101,93,95,103,100],"table_tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - 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