Business transformation in today’s complex market and volatile economy is both strategic and imperative. However, business elevation and innovation is not a simple linear road.

We offer a comprehensive framework that will help you balance holistic performance and business reinvention in navigating business challenges and market demands, ultimately creating a robust organization that can withstand today’s dynamic landscape.

To effectively balance both holistic performance and business reinvention, there are 10 key areas you need to focus on evaluating. This will uncover key insights into whether you’re ready for transformation, what major facets you need to improve, and how manageable the transformation will be.

Successful Transformation Pursues Both Holistic Performance and Business Reinvention

 

There are many reasons why businesses transform:

• Achieving growth, productivity, and efficiency
• Enhancing customer experience
• Addressing internal challenges
• Future-proofing the business
• Adapting to changes
• Responding to market disruptions

Since there are various reasons out there, it’s only logical that business transformations should focus on driving holistic performance and not just business reinvention. Pushing for business reinvention without considering existing business conditions, performance, and health can become counterproductive and even detrimental to the company.

In fact, before you even think of assessing the business and reinventing the whole organization, is it even broken in the first place? As the saying goes, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”

If you think your organization needs a transformation, we’ll help you navigate this transition. First, let’s see why you need to focus on your organization’s holistic performance and business reinvention.

 

Is holistic performance and business reinvention mutually exclusive?

The truth is every business transformation strategy is highly likely to assess its current performance in some way before undergoing transformation.

However, if a business neglects its holistic performance, it risks failing the project.¹ Mckinsey & Company shares that 70 percent of transformation initiatives fail due to:

• High aspirations
• Insufficient planning and clarity
• Limited investment to sustain change
• Lack of relevance of the proposed change
• Implementation difficulties and inadequate skillset to sustain change

Focusing on the holistic performance of your organization will help drive the transformation in the right direction. This is where the two aspects become equally important. Without one, the transformation’s purpose will quickly fall apart.

 

Driving Holistic Performance

Holistic performance refers to the results of business efforts and the effects these have on the stakeholders and the market. This includes the following:

• Product
• Business image
• Goodwill of the business
• Monetary health

Instead of focusing solely on isolated metrics or individual aspects, holistic performance considers the broader implications and interrelationships between different organizational elements.

 

1. Performance

Assessing business performance is the simplest of these. Use company insights to understand what works currently and which business aspects require reinvention.

 

How do financial and operational indicators compare with best-in-class?

Assess the financial and operational performance and whether it’s up to the standard of your organization and the industry. Businesses can’t exist in a vacuum, so you need to evaluate your internal operations against the top companies and competitors.

 

How has your business grown in recent years?

Pull out your old business objectives and annual plans to evaluate what you have accomplished and what milestones you’ve reached so far.

• Does your company meet its initiatives?
• Do you have challenges in meeting goals?
• What are these challenges?
• How might they affect your plans?

Consider your performance trends to help manage your expectations and allow you to effectively direct the business transformation.

 

How is the company delivering versus its full potential?

Assessing your company’s ability to deliver allows you to evaluate your resource utilization and whether your current state is at full capacity and productivity.

If your company is already achieving outstanding results in your current operation, you may no longer need a complete transformation.

 

2. Organizational Health

Start by asking, “Can your organization withstand a complete overhaul?”

Determine whether the skills, systems, vision, and resources required to deliver top-notch performance are already in place. If the company is stable, then your company has a better chance of effectively implementing a transformation.

 

What is your financial, operational, human resource, and sales bandwidth like?

Understand whether each one of your business departments can sustain an operational halt. The leadership must know how much disruption the business can take before buying into a complete overhaul. You may consider modular transformations to ease some of the effects of the disruption.

 

How does the culture affect change within the organization?

The organizational culture must support the transformation campaign as it will influence the energy and acceptance of the change. Does your culture inspire people to change, give the right energy, or build behaviors that encourage your business strategy and aspirations?

If your culture emphasizes problem-solving and a solution-oriented mindset, align the transformation in this regard and communicate how such transition will help drive the business forward. If it’s about collaboration, highlight how the transformation will support your practice and enhance the organization.

 

3. Talent and Capabilities

Talent and skillset are essential for any transformation to work; no matter how exciting the technology is, it will be driven by people. So, find out if you need to add people who can support the new systems and whether the current people fit in.

 

Are you reskilling and upskilling your current workforce?

Align workforce development efforts with the strategic objectives of your business transformation. Make sure that your staff is well-equipped and ready for the transformation.

 

Are you attracting new talent?

Evaluate if the organization is effectively attracting new talent. The answer will guide you in understanding the company’s perception of the job market.

If your company is attracting competitive, top-of-the-line talent for your roles, you are on the right track. In-demand candidates don’t apply to companies they don’t perceive as valuable or worth joining. It will also clarify whether your company’s work culture, compensation packages, and roles are competitive enough to sustain business growth.

 

4. Customer Experience

Without customers, there’s no business. So, think about your customer’s journey and how they interact within your organization. This will significantly improve your transformation efforts and maintain or improve customer experience.

 

Are the customers your focus?

Start by questioning if the customer is being prioritized. Are the customers satisfied? A customer-centric transformation will enhance overall performance, and foster innovation and adaptability.

 

Are there areas you want to improve?

Assess your current customer engagement and find any gaps in the process. Can it be fixed? Will the transformation affect it positively? What can you improve in the process?

 

What are your goals for customer interaction?

Know where you stand and where you plan to go. Then, find out whether the transformation will influence and support this goal. By having ambitious goals, you can:

• Drive a more meaningful transformation process.
• Contribute to overall organizational excellence by adding value to customers.
• Strengthen the brand image and reputation.
• Increase quality and customer satisfaction.
• Set industry benchmarks.

 

5. ESG

Understand your current and aspirational standing with the environment, society, and governance (ESG). This will help you navigate the changes required and determine whether there is adequate cushioning for the business to experiment with.

 

Is your ESG purpose centered around your strategy and culture?

ESG criteria are a set of rules to help companies ensure holistic equity, not just for their business but for the environment, the stakeholders of the business, and the rules they have to follow.

It helps ensure businesses contribute to society and treat everyone fairly. This is important because it shows a company’s commitment to making the world a better place and not simply focusing on profit and productivity.

Assess the gaps in your historical performance and aspirations to identify opportunities in the environment, society, and governance. Then, incorporate those opportunities into your current transformation plans to close the gaps.

Effective ESG can help you improve your brand reputation, and aligning it with your transformation efforts can yield better results. Focusing on these principles can attract more investors and increase business capital. This will also help the business gain a better brand image and general approval from external stakeholders.

 

Business Reinvention

On the other hand, you also need to focus on vital factors from a business reinvention perspective to elevate and transform your company successfully.

 

1. Operating Model and Market Responsiveness

You need to know whether the business is agile and responsive. To drive transformation successfully, evaluate how progressive your people are, how responsive your company has been to market demands, and how big or small the gap is between the market needs and your business.

 

Has the company deployed a customer-centric operating model with new ways of working and a nimble organizational design?

Here are a couple of questions you need to ask to further uncover your operating models and market responsiveness.

• How many cultural transformations have happened in the past?
• How often have you redesigned your product or value proposition to match market trends?
• Is there organizational agility?
• What measurable outcomes do you want, and how will these provide more value to customers?

 

Do mistakes get corrected quickly?

Agility reflects operational efficiency, adaptability, continuous improvement, a positive customer experience, employee engagement, and organizational resilience—all of which are crucial for driving sustainable growth and success in today’s dynamic business environment. If you plan to overhaul your business, testing your ability to solve challenges is necessary.

Transformation is not linear. Have a contingency plan in place and prepare if anything goes wrong to make sure there’s room for errors, even if your employees and operating model are responsive.

 

2. New Business Development

This is one of the most popular reasons why organizations transform. The desire to find new businesses and different revenue streams can significantly expand your business. Find out if you can support a new business development and evaluate your business initiatives.

 

Is the company building and buying new businesses to drive growth?

Have you tried to expand revenue streams, capture synergies, and create long-term value for shareholders and stakeholders? These initiatives require careful planning, execution, and integration to be successful. If you have done it recently, then it’s likely that your current transformation plans will be successful as well.

 

Are you innovating fast enough?

Companies that innovate quickly can adapt to change, capitalize on emerging opportunities, and maintain a competitive edge in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape.

 

3. Big Strategic Moves

Big strategic moves also give you an estimate of what business transformation will look like. Although a merger may not be the same as a digital transformation project, it will provide enough clues as to how your employees, systems, and organizational health behave when faced with significant shifts or changes.

 

Were there any recent mergers or acquisitions?

These strategies enable the company to adapt to changing market dynamics, capitalize on growth opportunities, and sustain its competitive advantage over the long term.

However, successful implementation requires careful strategic planning, disciplined execution, and a commitment to creating long-term value for stakeholders.

If you have planned well enough, you can expect good results from your transformation efforts.

 

Is there a desire to be more competitive or a better position in the market?

You can position your company better by making informed decisions about where to focus your efforts and investments. Furthermore, it drives sustainable performance and creates value for stakeholders in today’s dynamic and competitive business environment.

The ambition in this area will give you foresight as to whether the transformation will be managed with the desired proactivity, creativity, and motivation.

 

4. Analytics

Analytical insights are vital to understanding the business impact, the success of business reinvention, and driving better strategy. Navigate your business better by evaluating how employees react to numbers and data.

 

Does the company use advanced analytics in daily decision-making, driving sizable and measurable value to the bottom line?

This questions whether your company’s culture and practice depend on data. Analytics help minimize risks and create calculated decisions.

 

5. Digital and Technology

Technology helps drive your company’s growth and operations. Assessing your current infrastructure will determine your capacity for business transformation.

 

Do you have the proper technological infrastructure and architecture?

Evaluating how manual, conventional, digital, or automated workflows can be the first step toward planning the transformation project.

A robust infrastructure enables scalability, flexibility, integration, security, compliance, data management, analytics, cloud adoption, and innovation, providing the foundation for digital transformation and competitive advantage in today’s fast-paced, technology-driven world.

Use this insight to navigate the way forward and reinvent parts of your business that need it the most.

 

LEAD WITH PURPOSE, LEAD WITH SUPPORT

Holistic performance and business reinvention are essential for organizations seeking to thrive in today’s rapidly changing business environment.

Organizations can navigate the complexities of the market by adopting a comprehensive approach and embracing innovation, diversity and inclusion, technological disruption, globalization, environmental sustainability, and corporate social responsibility. This helps you build a stronger, more agile, and more competitive business.

 

References

1. “Losing from day one: Why even successful transformations fall short.” Mckinsey, 21 Dec. 2021, www.mckinsey.com/people-and-organizational-performance/successful-transformations.