Why Telco business transformation fails?

Companies nowadays understand that if they embrace technology, to substantially transform the way they operate in their industry and the way they acquire opportunities in their market, then they are going to be leaders in their industry. That's why most companies nowadays are taking business transformation at heart. However, how many of these business transformations will succeed and how will/can companies succeed in their transformation journey. Means how to make sure you are not putting a few hundred millions euros and a few years in a program that will not get you near where you want to be. Especially when there is no framework or a check list for the dos and don'ts of a successful transformation.

However we know by now from the experience of other companies that failed in their journey why they did and how they did fail. Learning from their experience and from their mistakes. Learning the reasons they failed so you can avoid them when you plan or pursue your journey. Reasons transformation programs fail:

• Number one reason is not seeing transformation for what it is. Seeing the transformation program as an IT replacement or a new software implementation rather than seeing it as changing the way you operate/do business and using technology as a means to enable that change.
• Absence of a transformation leader (Chief Transformation Officer) and a lack of a collective understanding to why we do what we do. In a transformation program teams come together from different parts of the organization or from outside of the organization i.e. vendors, consultants, integrators, subcontractors, strategy consultants. Each and every one of them understands a piece or a number of pieces in the puzzle and is interested mainly in the piece that is of a financial interest (financial gain) to his/her organization, which is totally fine. However, someone needs to have an End to End view of the whole transformation, be held accountable for the success & failure of the transformation, unite all these different organizations in one virtual organization with one set of interests/objectives (which later each organization can translate these objectives into their individual deliverables), establish one collective mindset/understanding and a common language among them, make sure every organization knows that's it is not here to compete against other organizations but to work together towards same set of objectives and have a common interest.
• Focusing on what/how we do rather than why we do what we do. Leave the what/how to the vendors, integrators, consultants... and focus on the real "why" which is not to replace an IT system or a legacy software but rather to achieve higher strategic objectives.
• Moving your obsolete processes into a modern system and expect a better result.
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• .... to be continued
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