2. The future state exists only as a rough sketch
Programmes also come unstuck when nobody has properly designed what the future looks like. Not the org chart, not the slide deck. The real answer to: how will decisions get made, who is accountable for what, how do processes connect, and what does good look like once this is delivered?
When INEOS FPS acquired a pipeline network, it needed to design and digitise more than 400 business processes from scratch.² That required serious design work before implementation could sensibly begin. We worked with their in-house teams to map those processes, establish clear ownership, and build approaches they could carry forward themselves.
When that design work does not happen, or happens too superficially, implementation teams end up making decisions in real time that should have been settled months earlier. Everything slows down, costs climb, and the politics get difficult because fundamental questions are still being argued while the clock is ticking.
Case study: Mapping and digitalising business-critical processes for INEOS FPS
3. The business case was written to get a “Yes”, not to get clarity
McKinsey’s research points to something that sounds almost embarrassingly simple: transformation fails when people do not understand why it is happening.¹
Not at board level. At every level.
Getting thousands of people to genuinely change how they work requires a reason they can connect with, and “protecting the bottom line” rarely cuts it.
A well-built business case does more than secure funding. It surfaces hidden assumptions, makes benefits explicit, and creates the conditions for genuine alignment across the senior team.
When a major supermarket needed funding for a significant organisational restructure, we built a case drawing on insights from comparable programmes that demonstrated a payback period of under two years and gave the leadership team a shared foundation for decision-making.³
A business case that is vague, over-optimistic, or treated as a formality does none of that. It funds the programme without equipping it.
Case study: Driving growth while reducing costs in retail
4. Technology is chosen before the organisation is ready for it
This might be the most common pre-delivery failure of them all.
The RFP goes out, the demos happen, a vendor is appointed, and what follows is the slow realisation that requirements were poorly defined, internal processes were not properly mapped, or the organisation simply cannot absorb the change the system demands. BCG’s research is clear on this point: cultural and structural readiness, not the technology itself, is what determines whether a transformation delivers lasting value.¹
Yet most organisations invest the bulk of their effort in system selection and technical implementation, and treat capability-building, process redesign, and genuine engagement to maximise adoption as secondary considerations, if they appear at all.
Choosing technology matters. Choosing it at the right moment in the process, with properly understood requirements, is what separates programmes that succeed from those that spend years firefighting a decision made far too early.
5. Leadership is assumed, not built
BCG’s analysis identifies leadership commitment as a decisive factor: not just the executive mandate, but visible, sustained engagement from the top through the middle of the organisation.¹
Programmes that win board approval but lose middle management tend to deliver systems that go live but are not widely or enthusiastically adopted.
We supported Kyndryl through a payroll transformation spanning 80 countries, where the complexity demanded real leadership attention at every level and the discipline to ensure every payroll transitioned without missing a single pay cycle.⁴
That kind of focus does not happen because the programme plan says it should. It is built into how the programme is structured and governed from day one.
Case study: Consolidating global payroll systems for Kyndryl
The gap between knowing and doing
None of this is a revelation. But change is hard. Change at scale is even harder. The human brain is wired to resist it. The reasons transformation programmes struggle are well documented. What remains stubbornly consistent is the gap between organisations knowing these things and acting on them at the start, when it is still possible to make a difference. The programmes that close that gap tend to do a few things differently:
- They treat diagnosis as a genuine investment, not an unnecessary delay to getting started.
- They design the future state with enough rigour to make implementation decisions straightforward rather than contentious, grounded in what it actually means for ‘me’ day to day.
- They build a business case that earns alignment and commitment to change rather than just securing budget.
- They bring in change management support from the beginning, not as an afterthought once things start going wrong.
If you are in the early stages of a transformation, or you are already in one and it is not moving as it should, we would be delighted to have a conversation.
contact usSources
¹ BCG, Flipping the Odds of Digital Transformation Success, 2020 (analysis of 850+ companies): bcg.com/publications/2020/increasing-odds-of-success-in-digital-transformation. McKinsey Transformation Practice, Common Pitfalls in Transformations, 2022: mckinsey.com/capabilities/transformation/our-insights/common-pitfalls-in-transformations-a-conversation-with-jon-garcia. Bain & Company transformation research, 2024.
² Change Associates / INEOS FPS case study: changeassociates.com/mapping-and-digitalising-business-critical-processes-for-ineos-fps/
³ Change Associates retail restructure case study: changeassociates.com/orgvue-retail-case-study/
⁴ Change Associates / Kyndryl case study: changeassociates.com/case-study-consolidating-global-payroll-systems-for-kyndryl/
- Why so many transformation projects fail before delivery starts - 19 March 2026
- When Metrics Mislead: Goodhart’s Law in change programmes - 1 May 2025
- Payroll Change Management. Getting it right. - 13 March 2025