Five transformation essentials for CEOs
With constant disruption now a given, the best organisations move fast to reshape themselves and invest in the right capabilities for long-term performance. Find out the five transformation essentials CEOs need to succeed and create competitive advantage.
“The ability to transform is an important source of competitive advantage - it enables you to respond to threats and opportunities faster and better than your competitors. CEOs who lead their organisations to become exceptionally good at getting better will leave a lasting and valuable legacy.”
"The pace of change has never been this fast; yet it will never be this slow again."
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, Davos 2018
There would be few CEOs who could disagree with the above statement. Digital transformation is revolutionising how business is conducted; established incumbents are being challenged by new entrants; and environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues are driving shareholder expectations. A global pandemic has forced businesses to adopt hybrid ways of working. Geopolitical instability has affected labour mobility and the ability to trade. With constant disruption now a given, PwC sees 2022 and 2023 as years of acceleration. The best organisations will move fast to reshape themselves, investing to build the right capabilities for long-term performance.
Whether you are considering selling or acquiring a business, deploying new technology or initiating a large-scale profit improvement program, our aim in writing this article is to increase your chances of success. Knowing that two in every three corporate transformations fail to reach (or sustain) the desired outcome, we want to tilt the odds in your favour. In recent years, PwC’s Strategic Enterprise Transformation team has partnered with CEOs and executive teams to undertake more than 30 transformations worldwide. They encompass diverse industries including financial services, telecommunications, mining, healthcare, the not-for-profit sector and government. Projects have taken place in Australia, New Zealand, India, Sri Lanka, Japan, South Africa and the United States.
A simple caveat to the CEO or senior executive who says, 'my situation is different and unique'. That might be true; however, we have experienced first-hand three important lessons:
What it takes to succeed at transformation is largely the same, regardless of culture, industry or situation.
CEOs who fail in a transformation repeat many of the same mistakes in how they run the organisation on a day-to-day basis.
CEOs who succeed do not merely deliver superficial change. They transform their organisation’s ability to respond to events, seize new opportunities and continually improve.
So, let’s focus on what it takes to succeed. This paper offers CEOs five clear steps:
1
Recognise and make the most of the moment in time between deciding on a bold transformational strategy and setting your organisation on the path to implement it.
2
Ensure you have a clear and compelling view of your organisation’s full potential.
3
Purposefully build an in-house execution engine to galvanise your organisation to deliver ongoing transformation.
4
Strengthen your organisation’s fitness to make transformational change and ensure it sticks.
5
Look forward to reset and do it all again, but now from a different starting point and with more confidence in what can be achieved.
Each of these transformation essentials is crucial and complimentary to achieve a successful transformation. Investing time to understand and embed all five will ensure you are adopting best practice. Remember, the aim is to make sure you are a member of the one-third of CEOs whose transformation succeeds!
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Contact us
Simon Herrmann
Asia Pacific Leader in Generative AI, Partner, PwC Australia
Tel: +61 419 152 466