How the Best Set Up Their Program Journey

Only a third of corporate transformations succeed, but two early decisions can help you buck the odds. A new BCG series, “Transformation Revisited,” shows how.

Lars Faeste, Jim Hemerling, Perry Keenan, Martin Reeves

Each [change] leader should be assessed for past performance, current readiness, and future potential across four dimensions: knowledge, soft skills, experience, and motivation and personality traits. Leaders also must have a foundation in adaptability and change leadership. A shortcoming in any one of these can be a warning sign.

However, the right leaders will fill roles in varying ways throughout the journey, from champion of the … [ Read more ]

Perry Keenan, Kimberly Powell, Huib Kurstjens, Michael Shanahan, Mike Lewis, Massimo Busetti

The process of identifying and prioritizing stakeholders by their level of support for the change effort and their degree of influence in the organization promotes targeted engagement. We find that in many cases, influential supporters are underleveraged and skeptics underengaged. Effective stakeholder engagement sees business leaders arming influential supporters as change agents, giving them the information and messages they need to influence the organization. At … [ Read more ]

A Way to Assess and Prioritize Your Change Efforts

Boston Consulting Group has created a change management tool called the DICE assessment, which they have been refining since they first wrote about it in HBR a decade ago, and a version of which is now available for online use.

With the aid of the DICE tool, companies can assess the probability of success of change initiatives early in their lives. By evaluating projects with a … [ Read more ]

Transformation: The Imperative to Change

As volatility and complexity rise, transformation has become an imperative for most companies, meaning fundamental changes to the strategy, operating model, organization, people, and processes. To transform, companies must take three steps: funding the journey, winning in the medium term, and establishing the right team, organization, and culture.

Changing Change Management: A Blueprint That Takes Hold

Despite the dismal history of corporate-change efforts, there are ways for organizations to successfully manage change—and make sure the changes stick. BCG’s latest report shows how the Change Delta—a disciplined, systematic approach—focuses energy and resources on the change elements that matter most.

Leading Change in Turbulent Times

Fundamental change is painful. The intellectual and logistical challenges may be daunting, but the emotional confusion and chaos created during such change can virtually paralyze an organization. In today’s turbulent environment, however, change is not optional. Farsighted leaders endeavor to use times like these to sprint past their less nimble competitors. In order to capitalize on potential new opportunities, such leaders are able to harness … [ Read more ]

Executing Change: Beyond the PMO

Today’s business environment often demands complex, high-risk change efforts such as aggressive cost reduction, ambitious revenue enhancement, or bet-the-future turnaround programs. But the traditional project management office (PMO) is better suited to running departmental projects on time and on budget than to managing complex, interconnected, cross-enterprise efforts. What’s needed is an SIO—a strategic initiative office that focuses on organizational alignment and value delivery. The authors … [ Read more ]

Transformation: How to Load the Dice in Your Favor

Whether for strategic, financial, or technological reasons, companies today are increasingly finding that they must completely transform critical elements of their businesses. As a result, the ability to manage such efforts quickly, effectively, and confidently has become an important source of competitive advantage and shareholder value. The problem, however,is that transformation, by its very nature, severely stretches organizations-often pushing skills, resources, and comfort levels to … [ Read more ]