Readers will know I’m no fan of the obsession with ‘transformation’ in strategy, but it’s sometimes essential or advanageous. In Corporate Transformation under Pressure, McKinsey report a less than 40% overall success rate, especially when used in an effort to get out of trouble – as they say, “this finding seems to contradict the common wisdom that it is hardest to transform a company when it lacks an acute and apparent need for change“. As I’ve said in previous posts, when you are in trouble is a bad time to reinvent yourself – most often better to focus on getting back to the basic, core business model that works.

Helpfully, the article goes on to offer tactics that, when used together, seem to make transformations more successful, depending on the purpose of the effort.

NEW: join strategy dynamics on LinkedIn.