As much as Transformation might be a worn-out word, most organizations seem to be heading into such large-scale change, or maybe more likely, be in the middle of one. These transformations may be driven by a higher purpose and a quest for greater value-creation or more commonly, be forced upon organisations because they have been slow to adjust and act, being disrupted by new players on their market. The call for sustainability and ESG will also be a huge driver for the Finance Transformation the coming years. Not only because of changing rules and regulation, but also because of the need to find sustainable and fair business models.
Regrettably, corporate transformations have a miserable success rate. Research by Professor Narasimhan Anand and Team Research Professor Jean-Louis Barsoux at IMD Business School, published in Harvard Business Review (HBR) in 2017, shows that as many as three quarters of all transformations either fail to deliver the anticipated benefits or are abandoned entirely. Still, there´s hope, as there are measures to take to increase your chances of having your organisation be among the 25% that succeed.
It is with the purpose of addressing the “art of how” to succeed that that we come together on May 19. We will address common reasons why organisations go about transforming themselves, what to do to get the direction right and the scope manageable but most importantly, we will focus on some key success factors on how to go about it to be successful.
In doing so, we will learn from a real-life case, discussing learning´s from an organization that managed to transform itself from being a dominant player in a declining business to a pathfinder in a new business with a focus on sustainability, doing this while still benefitting from its old core business and increasing its share price by 300% in the process. It is the story of the transformation of Stora Enso, a Swedish-Finnish multinational with a turnover of more than 10 billion euros in 2021.
I, who will share this transformation journey during Finance on a Mission, am a Senior Adviser at IMD Business School and the former CHRO of Stora Enso. I sincerely look forward to meeting all of you on May 19 for an open and honest conversation on how to succeed where so many fail.
See you in May,
Lars Häggström, Sr. Adviser
IMD Business School
