Over the past decade, “Transformation” has replaced the old buzzword “Change” coinciding with increasing volatility and uncertainty of business environment. Both are good and necessary for an organization, but the goal, process and outcome are different.

Change is about implementing finite initiatives, which may or may not be cross-functional, at the aim of making things better, cheaper, faster and more efficient. However, business transformation is a strategic shift with bold initiatives in people, process, technology and culture involving a radical change in how a business runs to generate new value or to help an organization cope with shifting market realities.

Those transformational initiatives could be interdependent or intersecting and aim at reinventing the organization as a whole and utilizing its potential and capabilities in a different way to make an organization “future-proof.” While “Change” makes the system better, “Transformation” makes a better system. Therefore, all transformations involve change, but not all change is transformation.

How we can help

Business Transformation is daunting and most transformational programs don’t deliver the hoped-for benefits, ending up by doing a simple change. Devon helps organizations determine whether they need change or transformation and to what extent either is basically required. We think that transformation could be realized on one of three trajectories depending on the change drivers: