The Transformational CIO: Leadership and Innovation Strategies for IT Executives in a Rapidly Changing World

What You Need to Know Now about Business Transformation Strategy

Business transformation is really another way of saying “business responding appropriately to changes in the market.” The reason that business transformation is terribly important right now, however, is simple: In today's unpredictable economy, markets are changing very quickly—but most businesses are still changing very slowly.

Moreover, the changes rippling across the global economy are not producing uniform effects. Some markets are changing faster and more profoundly than others. It's almost as if the laws of economics were applied haphazardly, generating different results in different markets. Faced with this kind of uncertainty, many companies choose to wait it out. But this sort of approach merely guarantees an even slower response to changing market conditions.

For many companies, the inability to respond appropriately to sudden changes in their markets will prove fatal. I won't speculate about which companies are spiraling downward into the dustbin of history, but I'll wager you a fine dinner that they are the companies that are ill-prepared for change.

The winners, on the other hand, will be the companies that prepare for change and nurture a corporate culture that embraces continuous business transformation. These winners will develop processes and frameworks that enable and support continuous business transformation, they will reward the people who come up with the innovations that fuel and energize continuous ...