Sometimes it’s a financial crisis, sometimes it’s the threat from a disruptive competitor, sometimes growth just hits a wall, sometimes it’s the opportunity to ride a global megatrend, and sometimes it’s simply the result of systematic planning for the future.
Whatever motivates a leadership team to embark on strategic transformation, it’s often easier in the short term not to undertake the challenge (or delay the decision for just one more year), which is why stories of successful corporate change efforts are so rare. Yet strategic transformation—adapting a core business to disruptive change while also creating new growth around new products, services, or business models—may be the leadership imperative of the 21st century.
