Business transformation management

Business transformation implies fundamental and complex organizational changes within as well as across companies alongside the value chain; business transformation can also radically alter the company's relations with the wider economic and societal environment. Examples of business transformation types are business process outsourcing, business model changes, mergers, acquisitions or cross functional and inter- and intra-organizational restructuring.
What are the challenges?
Business transformation programs and projects are complex, multi-faceted and risk-taking efforts. Many examples also indicate the increasingly radical nature of business transformation. In addition, companies often have to handle several business transformation projects at the same time. Surprisingly, management executives deem their companies' transformation capacities as relatively low and many complex transformation projects fail. or necessities that arise from a globalized workforce, business leaders have to innovate coherent strategies to attain a sustainable competitive advantage. It is not sufficient to respond to dramatic changes in the competitive environment by relying on activities that have worked in the past. In turn, strategy and goals of the business transformation program have to be aligned with the company's strategy in order to properly address opportunities and risks caused by the driving forces. In addition, any transformation effort needs to take into account the organization's capabilities, resources and competencies, not only to create change, but also to ensure that its inherent advantages are not eroded or destroyed by the changes.
When realizing a business transformation program, a skillful team has to be built, including managers with appropriate qualifications and relevant functional, methodological and leadership skills. In general, a business transformation program comprises several (sub-) projects with strong interdependencies that have to be constantly monitored and harmonized (program management). Expected benefits have to be described, their baseline measured and clear responsibilities for the delivery defined; already during the projects the realization of benefits has to be tracked. BT often requires radical redesign of business processes. The transformation of business processes often makes changes to the company's information systems necessary, and, consequently, demands the development of a new IT strategy and effective IT Governance. Business Transformation also goes along with changes of culture, norms or values and therefore requires specific measures to convince and involve the employees, for example in culturally diverse regions or in the context of IT implementation, and retain key talent in the organization. A major issue during a transformation is also learning on both individual and organizational levels (learning and knowledge management) with a particular focus on the building leadership capabilities. The motivation of employees, which can be managed through incentive and goal systems, is also a relevant factor. In addition to the involvement and motivation of employees, further stakeholders, people and organizations have to be managed as they have both an interest in and influence on the program and the organization, (stakeholder management).
After the completion of a transformation program its results have to be evaluated: it has to be assessed to what extent the defined goals and expected benefits have been realized. Moreover, the transformation has to be sustained through ongoing efforts.
As shown, there exists a plethora of management disciplines that contribute in different ways to organizational transformations. Many of these disciplines have achieved sufficient levels of maturity in terms of underlying theories, methods, tools, techniques and observable best practices. While all of these disciplines can be regarded as necessary and important for business transformation management, none of them will be sufficient for successful large-scale business transformations. The root cause for this is the isolated development process and the narrow contribution of each discipline.
What is Business Transformation Management? (BTM)

Unlike the integration of functional domains, the integration of management disciplines is conceptually still in its infancy. This constitutes the most important challenge, but also the most significant opportunity. When striving for excellence in business transformation a series of challenges and questions need to be addressed by academics, consultants and senior executives.
Guiding questions:
1. How can the management disciplines relevant for a business transformation be identified and prioritized?
2. What constitutes a general business transformation management approach that integrates and extends proven management disciplines? What are the interfaces between the different methodologies?
3. What are the emerging properties of such a management approach that go beyond the sum of the single disciplines, i.e. what are the unique features of business transformation management that are not covered by any of the existing management disciplines?
4. What are different types of transformation efforts and their inherent characteristics?
5. How can such a BTM be customized in the context of a specific business transformation type?
6. What is the impact of soft factors such as culture, underlying values and assumptions on a BT program's overall success? How can such factors be influenced in favor of a transformation program's sustained success?
7. What type of transformation manager is needed to drive transformation initiatives? (leadership skills, values, attitudes …)
8. How can an organization adequately fill the talent gap resulting from BT initiatives?
9. What governance approaches facilitate successful business transformation management?
10. What are the requirements of business transformation management in terms of architectures and software solutions?
This series of incomplete research questions demonstrates the significant demand for internal and external providers of integrated Business Transformation Management approaches.

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