A new perspective on search
01.08.2024
When To Recruit A Permanent Transformation Leader?
Written by Bjorn Ovar Johansson
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE – IT IS ALL ABOUT TIMING!
More recently, I have noticed a trend towards businesses and PE investors looking to hire permanent leaders to spearhead digital business transformation programs rather than placing an interim or bringing in a consultancy.
Hiring a Chief Transformation Officer (CTrO) to lead such a multi-year, strategic, venture makes perfect sense! Top digitally transformed businesses like DBS Group and LEGO did just that. However, it is all about timing!
“Most people don’t start a house building project by first contracting a builder, then looking at requirements, architecture, permits, time plans, budgets and financing – they get the fundamentals in place first”.
With 15 years in international leadership positions as an independent interim, I have had the opportunity to, together with my teams, successfully deliver 5 major, international digital business transformations as planned.
Based on this experience, I want to highlight some fundamentals that should be in place before initiating any transformation, and subsequently, why it might be sensible to hold the CTrO recruitment until these are secured.
The complexity in recruiting a CTrO is not related to identifying candidates with the right experience, skills, mindset and cultural fit for the role. Rather, the risks are related to what extent the hiring business is ready to embark on a digital transformation. Time is essential, hence invest in planning the venture before you commit!
A MAJORITY OF TRANSFORMATIONS FAIL
Looking back at the last two decades, a clear majority of digital business transformation programs have failed!
Only a third of transformations are completed on time, budget, according to business requirements and delivering the value initially projected. The reason for many failures relates to five critical success factors that need to be in place BEFORE initiating any digital business transformation program.
The fundamentals that determine if a transformation should be launched and if it will be successful are:
1. Senior stakeholder alignment
2. Having sorted the ‘basics’
3. Organisational change management in place
4. Competences secured
5. Scope and a minimum viable product (MVP) as a first release
HOW TO SET UP YOUR TRANSFORMATION FOR SUCCESS
Hence, any transformation should consist of two distinct phases:
A. Initial planning and mobilisation (typically 3-6 + 6-12 months) leading to a Board investment decision
B. The actual digital business transformation program (typically 18-60 months)
The purpose of the first phase is to secure that fundamentals are in place including identifying and start eliminating any ‘showstoppers’ before a final decision to initiate the transformation is made. For example:
Mission, vision and strategy – confirming that executive management are fully aligned and committed
Communication and organisational change management – ensuring the organisation is aware and ready
Addressing critical aspects such as data, legacy systems or cloud readiness (i.e. potential showstoppers)
Assessing current state, gaps and opportunities
Defining scope and business requirements
Securing internal resources (including backfilling key roles) and outlining program organisation
Enterprise architecture / digital landscape and selection of new IT systems
Selection of external implementation partner/s
Considering ‘quick wins’ and longer-term strategy – i.e. program planning, roadmap, milestones
Baseline KPIs (to be able to track and monitor success)
Financial investment and business case / ROI
WHY START WITH AN INDEPENDENT INTERIM OR A CONSULTANCY – OR BOTH?
The initial phase can be managed by internal resources; however, an external partner might be preferred as they have the required expertise, time and, as the early stages can be politically charged with different agendas, their objective support may be invaluable to get things off the ground and drive what’s best for the organisation.
The consultancy has more resources at their disposal and may wish to run and staff the transformation going forward. An independent interim can be likely more objective and agile without any ‘hidden agendas’. Some clients choose to use an independent interim to ‘manage’ and oversee an established management consultancy.
Both parties are well suited to support the recruitment of a permanent CTrO. This process should begin once the fundamentals have been assessed and it is clear that the transformation will likely take place and when.
This allows an incoming CTrO to understand the precise role, how the business intend to transform and if they have the experience and competences needed (such as specific knowledge in manufacturing and supply chain or in customer experience, sales and marketing, in a specific ERP like D365FO or SAP, in ESG or Gen AI et cetera).
CONCLUSIONS
Experienced interims and consultancies have delivered several transformations in multiple sectors, can offer value-add already in the first week and are available to start almost immediately.
They will lead the planning phase, build a program team, outline the time plan, secure internal resources and partners, guide technology selection, address stakeholder alignment, update the vision and strategy, establish organisational change management, ensure communication and more. Finally, they will support executive leadership in making a qualified Go / no-go decision based on a well-defined business case and a solid roadmap.
Once an investment decision has been made, they can help mobilising the program and start to tackle identified ‘showstoppers’ (e.g. harmonisation of master data, SKU optimisation and / or cloud-sourcing) that would otherwise drive complexity and risk during the actual transformation execution.
Finally, the delivery phase should ideally not start until the new CTrO is available – after all, this is going to be their responsibility over the coming several years! Hence, the interim or consultancy will introduce and onboard the incoming CTrO, handing over the program, before leaving for another assignment.
M: +447884838102 E: ovar@telia.com
Bjorn Ovar Johansson is the Founder of Senior IT Executive Limited. He is active as interim CIO and advisor in EMEA, the US and APAC. Based in Manchester, he specialises in IT organisational turn-arounds and digital business transformations.
Do not hesitate to make contact for questions, advise or if you would like to provide your organisation with a presentation on this topic.
