It goes without saying that businesses today face mounting pressure to adapt swiftly to technological advances, market disruptions, and ever-evolving customer expectations.
As this urgency intensifies, the term transformation increasingly dominates conversations, whether in large corporations, small enterprises, or startups. Strategies are revised, teams mobilised, and technology investments announced. Yet, a lingering question remains, is anything truly transforming?
A clear illustration of the urgent need for effective transformation strategies lies in the generational shifts reshaping today’s business landscape. For the first time, five generations coexist in the workplace, each bringing diverse experiences, values, and expectations.
At the forefront is Gen Z, who are not only redefining what success means to them but also reshaping consumer preferences. They seek more than just products or services; they want to belong to brands and businesses that reflect their values and offer a sense of purpose and inclusion.
Organisations, large or small, must therefore rethink structural models of the past to unleash the power of a multi-generational populations. This can only be done through transformative strategies.
Successful transformative strategies are not however built on magic; they are built on key principles that ensure both immediate results and long-term impact. However, it remains a sad reality that often times when organisations undertake a large-scale transformation, research shows that their efforts fail about 70 percent of the time.
So, how can businesses focused on sustainable growth avoid becoming part of that 70 percent?
Embrace the accountability
One of the primary reasons why 70 percent of transformation efforts fail is resistance, from both management and employees. Accountability, while essential, is often a bitter pill to swallow. Despite the appeal of the word transformation, the reality is that it is an intensive, demanding process that requires collective commitment.
Rather than churning out lengthy reports that go unread, organisations must focus on creating the right conditions for success. This means fostering a strong partnership between leadership and teams, securing genuine buy-in, demonstrating a willingness to address difficult areas, and nurturing relationships that support meaningful change.
Where possible, grant your transformation team full independence. Doing so empowers them to hold all departments accountable and ensures that transformation efforts are not just symbolic but real, measurable, and sustainable.
Aligning transformation with culture
Accountability cannot thrive without cultural alignment. Even when teams understand what is changing, transformation efforts often stall if they cannot see why it matters to them personally.
Given today’s demographic diversity and evolving workplace dynamics, people increasingly seek to align themselves with organisations that pursue meaningful goals. When businesses clearly connect transformation to a purpose that resonates with their people, it creates a powerful catalyst for change.
Transformation, then, isn’t just about managing change, it is about inspiring and mobilising the workforce to lead it.
Create and embrace pitstops
Albert Einstein famously defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. In the context of transformation, modern-day insanity is pressing forward without pausing to assess progress.
Now more than ever, organisations must break through transformation barriers by moving beyond vague statements like strategic anchors are in progress. Instead, they should implement structured review processes that provide clear, honest insights into what is working and what is not.
Just like in any long journey, success depends on well-timed pitstops: moments to reflect, recalibrate, and realign efforts to ensure the transformation stays on course and delivers its intended impact.
Transformation is no longer a luxury. But neither is it enough to declare it. The future will belong to those institutions that do more than perform change rituals, it will belong to those who embed reinvention into their DNA.
Transformational leads must therefore translate vision into daily behaviour, be architects of coherence, and champion the uncomfortable but necessary questions. The word transformation may feel tired but the work of real transformation has never been more urgent.
The question is not whether we are changing but rather if we are changing fast, deep, and authentically enough to meet the future that is already here.
The writer is the Chief Transformational Officer at Family Bank.
