Business Transformation

Business Transformation and Planning

All successful organisations have a business transformation plan which evolves. In order for businesses to remain relevant and successful they should plan for continual business transformation and improvement. When an organisation starts to think about how they can transform, they consider the current business environment and the strategy of the business. Training is also a key element of successful business transformation and employee engagement.

In order to successfully transform any business you will need to have a robust plan. Communication is necessary in order to gain buy-in and to inform employees of quick wins and successes.

Developing your strategy for business transformation

A plan is then made to design a new strategic direction to take advantage of emerging market conditions or new opportunities in other markets. Business transformation is vital to remain relevant and to meet the needs of customers. If we consider Kodak and BlackBerry, they both failed to transform and embrace change to meet current and future customer needs. John Kotter, in ‘Leading Change’ (1996), set out the 8 key steps for business transformation change in an organisation:

Create a Climate for Change

Steps 1 – 3

Increase urgency

Building the guiding team

Get the right vision

Engagement of Organisation

Steps 4 – 6

Increase urgency

Building the guiding team

Get the right vision

Implementation and Embed

Steps 7 & 8

Keep momentum

Make it stick

Managing transformation and change in your business

It is vital to have a business transformation strategy to remain relevant and ahead of your competitors. All too often, some of John Kotter’s 8 steps are missed or not fully applied. This will only lead to ultimate failure as each step helps to cement the change in the hearts and minds of employees. Kotter & Cohen, in ‘The Heart of Change’ (2002) argue that the main obstacle to successful change is the behaviour of individuals and groups and people will only change when you speak to their feelings. When we see and feel change our behaviour changes and we accept the change.

Success transformation of a business

When planning any transformation, certain management areas should be considered and aligned to ensure the successful implementation and embedding of change. Many organisations stop short of embedding the desired change across all areas of the business and this results in failure, as over time people go back to the way things were done before. Some of the management areas which need to be aligned for success are: strategy, risk, project management, processes, organisational design, human resources and IT.

The vital role technology and data play in business transformation

All too often the importance of IT and technology in pulling everything together is overlooked or they are involved as a quick bolt-on to the change initiative. Having IT and governance professionals involved very early on in any organisational wide transformations will help provide the roadmap to set timelines and roll out new technology and training in conjunction with the human resources.

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