Bigger moves win
Enterprise-wide initiatives are 3x more likely to fully or mostly achieve their intended outcomes compared to incremental, small-scale changes, particularly when coupled with proactivity.
No Impact / Negative
Partly Achieved
Mostly Achieved
Fully Achieved
Fully or Mostly
Achieved Outcome
Limited / Incremental
Single team, project or process
15%
57%
21%
7%
28%
Moderate
Several teams or functions
7%
40%
44%
10%
54%
Significant
Most business units/divisions
24%
55%
18%
73%
Broad / Transformational
Organization or enterprise-wide
13%
53%
30%
83%
Similar success rate: 83% for scaled response; 92% for proactive responses.
What enables proactivity and its 4.4x higher ROI?
What enables proactivity and its 4.4x higher ROI? Scale.
Enterprise-wide initiatives are more proactive by nature requiring planning, CEO alignment, and commitment of resources.
Incremental approaches are inherently more reactive taking the form of quick fixes, tactical responses, and departmental competition for resources.
Scale.
Align the operating model to allow for rapid reconfiguration or consider creating parallel spin-out structures that can operate with greater speed and agility.
Evaluate not just what actions to take, but how effectively those actions can be executed through clear responsibilities and committed ownership.
Codify organizational practices to help define project scope, gating processes, and clear KPIs.
Commit to decisive action to drive momentum across the enterprise rather than keeping too many options open.
To maximize proactivity, invest in structural changes that foster flexibility:
Takeaways
Build a foundation for speed and rigor, including a scalable data infrastructure, security-by-design, and compliance frameworks.
Takeaway 5
Build execution discipline by codifying organizational practices that ensure follow-through.
Takeaway 3
Shift the question from "What?" to "How well can we execute"? to ensure actions have real impact
Takeaway 2
Lean into decisive action at scale over optionality to avoid fragmentation.
Takeaway 1
5
Takeaways
Establish strong organizational discipline and clear decision-making channels that can enable swift, decisive action or consider spin out structures to reimagine the business without usual constraints.
Takeaway 4