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Designed and produced by the Business Support Centre (BSC) at Deloitte Consulting, Johannesburg

Making businesstransformation stickThe basics successfulorganisations excel at and others failto get right

3. Instil supportive behaviours

Change management during the implementation of transformation programmes needs to be much more strategic in nature than the mere execution of communication programmes. Although communication is a key component of change, it speaks more towards clarifying than really affecting a changed behaviour.

Successful companies architect and coach the behaviours which are required for the “new organisational way” in a smart way. This is done through the identification of “value events”, where the appropriate and visible behaviour of leaders and key role players will visibly speak to the new way things should be done.

Leaders and role players should be coached on appropriate behaviour in – for example – presentations to all staff. Even if it starts out being artificial, the altered behaviour creates the culture of the future. There is no replacement for enthusiasm and commitment, which can be encouraged and instilled within the opinion leaders of the organisation. Change comes from

doing things differently and the team needs to be taught about what is required of them.

4. Implementing with structure

You cannot implement successful change through a messy programme. Successful organisations not only have a clear business case, sufficient tactical clarity and well-architected behavioural change, they also create well-structured programme offices which drive key programme management components. Such components include programme governance, business alignment, project planning and project oversight. Programme offices differ and programme management processes should be sufficient, but fit-for-purpose for the complexity of the change involved.

Getting the basics right can lead to organisations transforming into more sustainable, more profitable entities. If the leadership corps is committed and energised; if the process is managed in a decisive, comprehensive way; if the right behaviours are instilled, the organisation will gain a new lease of life.

The compulsion to deliver ever better financial results, contain costs or actively respond to changing commercial and economic circumstances all create pressure within an organisation to look at reoccurring waves of strategic transformation.

Numerous studies have been conducted on the overwhelming failure rate of strategic transformation programmes and various complex theories have been developed. A recent analysis by the Deloitte Strategy and Transformation teams has identified certain key components which are critical to successful transformation. Although deceptively simple, they are often neglected by change agents, consultants and company executives driving a transformation process. Those who excel in getting the basic success factors in place seem to be much more successful in achieving the desired business transformation, while the laggards tend to fail time and time again in getting the basics right.

Our team has identified a short list of key elements which, in our experience, are necessary requirements for successful transformation efforts, and which to some degree are lacking in transformational failures. These four critical elements are:

1. Have a watertight argument for the transformation business case

“Why are we doing this?” is the most obvious question that will be posed. A startling number of organisations do not have a ready answer. Many companies have realised the need for fairly radical change to create sustainable business models. Step one is for the executive and

the transformation team to come up with a clear, formulated logic behind the project.

It is critical to have high-level executive buy-in for the change, since it is they that will cascade it down to the rest of the business. Their job will be to convey the transformation business case and convince their teams to support it. They will ensure that the programme is successfully pushed through the entire organisation. Without a clear articulation of the reason for change, something of executive substance, one cannot secure the necessary buy-in from the leaders who need to drive change down to an operational level.

2. Ensure tactical clarity

This is one of the silver bullets of successful transformation. At the outset, change is more about ensuring buy-in from executive and functional leaders within the

organisation than anything else. This is the team that will stabilise the process, so it is well worth investing in them to ensure that they understand what is required. Behaviour change is required from each individual.

Executives who are driving the transformation need to clearly and completely understand the concepts and implications of the programme for daily life. Because change can cause serious discomfort, the business process reality needs to be clarified for them to carry out what is required. For example, when instituting a shared services system and centralising processes such as payroll, line managers will need to be briefed on losing their individual payroll managers as one of the realities of the transformation. It often happens that operational leaders buy into so-called “best practice” without really understanding the implications for them,

their business areas and their people. If leaders need to go through a

personal change process, best they do so sooner rather than later. Plenty of programmes fail during implementation due to superficial leadership buy-in.

Coenrad AlbertsDirectorDeloitte Consulting

Clare WilsonExecutive LeadDeloitte Consulting

“Why are we doing this?” is the most obvious question that will be posed. A startling number of organisations do not have a ready answer.

Driving Strategic Change –A component based approach to ensuring success and Executive buy-in

“Effective change doesn’t happen by accident. It requires a focused and deliberate effort.”

1

4

2 3

Transformation Business Case

“clarifying the logic”

EnsuringTactical Clarity

“clearing the airearly on”

InstillingBehaviour

“leading by example”

Enterprise ProgrammeManagement

“predictabilitythrough

structure”

•SuccessfulExecutivechangeeffortsdifferssignificantlyfromrun-of- the mill IT and process type change•Meretraining,communicationandthe“fun-factor”isnotenough.

You also need to honour the strategic intellect of the Executives involved•DeloittehasdevelopedauniquemethodofdrivingStrategic

Change by addressing: - The transformation business case – why are we

doing this? - Ensuring tactical clarity – what does this mean?

- Instilling the supportive behaviours – how should I act and lead?

- Enterprise programme management – how does it all fit together?•Wehavefoundthatasignificantamount

of “detail” automatically falls in place if the strategic and tactical levels are addressed

appropriately

Key Points