The business world today is facing a new reality, one of economic unpredictability, disruptive technology, globalization, and unprecedentedly fierce competition. In such an environment, the traditional ways of achieving a competitive advantage—such as scale and proprietary assets—are no longer enough. The ability of a company to address these new realities, adapt to the changing conditions, and deliver bold change is increasingly critical to gain competitive advantage. That means more comprehensive—and more frequent—change programs. Many boards have appointed CEOs and senior executives with that explicit mandate, and almost all leaders recognize the need to take even successful enterprises to new levels of performance.
Despite all the investments, organizational change initiatives have a spotty record (evidence indicates that 50% of change programs fail to achieve their objectives; the failure rate increases to 75% for more complex programs). Indeed, the traditional approach to change management is itself in need of change.
And executives need to understand the stumbling blocks that cause transformation efforts to fail. In global surveys, two factors are increasingly recognized as the leading causes of failure:
