Understanding Patterns of Enterprise Transformation

Transformation is ubiquitous. It seems that every business has done, is doing, or is planning to “do a transformation.” Over the course of the past decade, the idea of transformation has transcended the specific organizations within which they exist to become a standalone entity and industry. At the same time, being agile has become more mainstream as countless organizations seek to emulate the successes of industry standard-bearers like Spotify, Netflix, and Amazon. The resulting explosion of growth that has supported this developing industry has yielded a raft of new roles, certifications, courses, blogs, books, webinars, meet-ups, and events.

This growth spurt is far from over. A recent survey noted that 64% of CIOs now believe political, economic, and business uncertainty is on the rise. Of these, more than half plan to respond by becoming more agile, and 88% by continuing to invest heavily in digital as a strategy. Crucially, these changes all necessitate ongoing investment in people, practice, and technology to continuously adapt to an ever-changing environment. In fact, transformation is becoming less of a one-off event and is evolving in purpose to support the desire for adaptability and responsiveness over longer-term planning for forecasting. Transformation is a byword for investment in continuous improvement.

However, this growing industry is not without its challenges. The often-quoted and debated statistic that ...