Investigating the Reasons Behind Enterprise Transformation Failures

This report delves into the reasons behind the failure of enterprise transformations, examining the challenges organizations face during significant changes. It highlights the differences between successful and unsuccessful firms, focusing on factors such as strategic outlook, technological issues, and employee resistance. The report analyzes the problems encountered during transformation, including conflicts among employees, confusion due to changes in business plans, and setbacks. It provides recommendations for improvement, such as focusing on business opportunities, utilizing frameworks like the Business Model Canvas and Zachman Framework, and the importance of expert IT architecture designers. The conclusion emphasizes the need for a strategic approach, effective communication, and employee support to ensure successful organizational changes and overall growth.

Running head: REASON BEHIND FAILURE OF ENTERPRISE TRANSFORMATIONS
Reason behind failure of enterprise transformations
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1REASON BEHIND FAILURE OF ENTERPRISE TRANSFORMATIONS
Executive Summary
The current report discusses about various problems as well as hindrance faced by an
organization while undergoing several transformational changes and differences between
organizations that are proved to be successful with those that fail have also been laid out
clearly. Therefore factors where organizations face problems have been studied in detail and
an analysis has been made to identify ways by which those barriers can be removed through
effective means of communication. This report sets examples for that business that are
planning to undertake certain innovative operations in the future years to come.

2REASON BEHIND FAILURE OF ENTERPRISE TRANSFORMATIONS
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
Reasons behind failure of enterprise transformations............................................................3
Differences between successful firms and those which have failed......................................5
Problems faced by enterprises while undergoing transformation..........................................5
Recommendations......................................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8

3REASON BEHIND FAILURE OF ENTERPRISE TRANSFORMATIONS
Introduction
Business Organizations are rapidly undergoing changes in modern era as they think
that implementation of necessary changes would lead to organizational success in future.
Leaders of an organization are gradually shifting towards implementation of innovation,
management of knowledge as well as human resources instead of undertaking the
responsibility of managing mass markets. These organizations suffer failure as a result of
incorporating transformations in their work process and the rate of failure has gone up to 65-
70% nowadays (Battistelli et al. 2014). The current report discusses about an investigation
into those failed cases and determine the factors that would increase the probability of
organizations achieving success as a result of undergoing through transformation. The report
involves utilization of secondary data in order to justify the failed cases and identify
differences between firms that succeed with the ones that fail. Finally it states certain
recommendations for those organizations so that rate of failure can be minimized.
Discussion
Reasons behind failure of enterprise transformations
 Lack of strategic outlook that concerns transformation objectives as well as impact
Organizations usually undertake digital transformation in a fashionable manner without
understanding a specific path that their journey might lead them. Incorporated changes are
often identified to be sporadic as well as chaotic. They mostly lack a definite form of
strategic outlook and lead to production of various challenges that are mostly non-integrated.
Companies generally fail to realize ways by which business as well values obtained from
customers can be improved by replacing traditional business models.

4REASON BEHIND FAILURE OF ENTERPRISE TRANSFORMATIONS
 Demands of Information Technology on that of financial as well as technological
background of companies sounds quite high
Sometimes digital transformation within the enterprises gets stopped in the midways due
to fall of budget and various other issues associated with technology. The reason is that the
organization undergoes failure in terms of building a solid foundation that is a stable IT
structure. The organization often faces difficulty while segmenting value pockets as a result
transformational changes get hampered. Lack of holistic and modular approach in design
framework minimizes values obtained out of business dealings.
 Lack of proper ownership within an organization
When board of authority is usually absent during digital transformation process of a
company, it might lead to the drowning of projects due to lack of approval and validation
declaration within a specific period of time (Cameron and Green, 2015).
 Vague transformation maps not containing any specific milestones
Organizations do not plan properly towards achieving a particular objective step by step
instead it jumps into rebuilding of a business activity (Bahadur and Tanner, 2014). As a result
they lose effective control over their deliverables within a very short period of time. Such
hasty decision making processes get influenced by non-alignment of company’s culture with
the transformational changes it is about to undertake, lack of focus on intermediary
milestones as a result of undergoing changes.
 Lack of sufficient resources for execution of transformational changes
Due to insufficient resources present within an organization technology vendors cannot
continue implementation of transformational changes as a result organization lack positive

5REASON BEHIND FAILURE OF ENTERPRISE TRANSFORMATIONS
vibes to work towards achieving a particular objective. This leads to stagnant economy of an
organization and also it has to undergo through various losses.
Differences between successful firms and those which have failed
A business firm comprising of efficient leaders usually think towards bringing radical
changes within organization. A good business analyst sets specific aspirations for his
company like to achieve maximum profit as a result of those changes, carve out a role that
would look towards making a particular organization socially responsible towards
community. They mostly achieve their objectives through board-cut costing, rebooting of
technologies, setting new networks and channels to reach out towards customers and through
constant analysis of various resources (Worley and Mohrman, 2014). The successful
companies remain under a process of mastering various changes and train its employees so
that they can adapt themselves to a new changing environment. These organizations try to
treat their legacy in the form of an asset for future. They focus on developing good customer
relationships and build trust, image as well as confidence across the market producing good
quality goods and services.
Organizations that usually fail during the transformational changes lack board of
team, executives as well as efficient leaders to handle those changes within the framework.
Due to poor planning as well as set up processes organizations undergo several losses due to
lack of stakeholder engagement, improper decision making roles as well lack of sufficient
knowledge and skilled resources (Porter and Heppelmann, 2015). These organizations began
to lose skilled people as they constantly focus on incorporating new automation technologies
that leads to loss of productivity and generates fewer amounts of profits.

6REASON BEHIND FAILURE OF ENTERPRISE TRANSFORMATIONS
Problems faced by enterprises while undergoing transformation
There are various obstacles that come along when organizations undergo several
transformational changes, some of them are:
 Rise of conflict among employees and group individuals
Transformational changes generally instigate certain emotions among the employees
working like fear as well as uncertainty (Burke, 2017). Turnover rate of employees increase
in this particular time and sometimes it becomes impossible on part of team leaders to
manage the entire situation. Arise of conflicts within the environment of the organization
leads to disrupting of schedule and loss of patience among various positions in the
organization comes to be noticed.
 Confusion due to reforming business plans
People get diverted from their initial plans when they started the business process and
confusion arises due to further reforming of plans and actions. Some new technologies
incorporated are not compatible with the old ones and if successful planning actions are not
undertaken then it generates lack of efficiency in terms of production (Harvey et al. 2014).
 Setbacks that may result as a result of organizational change
Often setbacks arise as a result of changes and if they are not being identified from
beforehand then it leads to major financial loss for the company. When new organizational
framework starts imbibing negative mental attitude towards its employees, it often leads to
drowning of its share in the market economy (Vaara, Sonenshein and Boje, 2016).
 Resistance often come from side of people working under organization
People usually try to resist these transformational changes as they are accustomed to the
security offered to them as a result of recent circumstances (Gilpin-Jackson, 2015). Certain

7REASON BEHIND FAILURE OF ENTERPRISE TRANSFORMATIONS
behavioural barriers amongst the people resist changes across the working environment for
example staffs face frequent threat so that they learn new procedures to get accustomed to
new changes undertaken within an economy which is not entertained smoothly by them.
Recommendations
It can be recommended that organizations should place a focus on designing as well
as testing business or customer opportunities that would lead to raising values in forefront.
Viewing activities associated with transformation through a prism of Business Model Canvas
provide deep insights into investment plan activities of the organization. Understanding of
structure of an enterprise through Zach man Framework helps it to undertake necessary steps
in order to run efficiently (Mazzucato, 2015). It can also be recommended that on invitation
of expert IT architecture designers would help to create a vendor-independent framework that
would primarily centre on a specific value from user. Therefore further reshaping of change
processes would help to yield better results and also various challenges faced by the company
can also be surfaced.
Conclusion
Therefore from above discussion it can be truly acknowledged that organizational changes
have to be handled in a very strategic approach and it is important to communicate as well as
convince members in an organization so that they acknowledge these transformational
changes. During this process, firms face lot of difficulties for example they had to reframe,
redesign their policies and approach as a result they had to face certain barriers. With time
they can easily be overcome by using sufficient resources, training of individuals they lead to
ultimate growth in terms of further achievement of stability within the existing firm.
Cooperation and support from both the employee side as well as that of customers is expected
for smooth running of economic conditions.

8REASON BEHIND FAILURE OF ENTERPRISE TRANSFORMATIONS

9REASON BEHIND FAILURE OF ENTERPRISE TRANSFORMATIONS
References
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concerns about change and commitment to change among Italian organizations: the
moderating role of innovative work behavior. The International Journal of Human
Resource Management, 25(7), pp.951-978.
Cameron, E. and Green, M., 2015. Making sense of change management: A complete guide to
the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers.
Worley, C.G. and Mohrman, S.A., 2014. Is change management obsolete?. Organizational
Dynamics, 43(3), pp.214-224.
Burke, W.W., 2017. Organization change: Theory and practice. Sage Publications.
Porter, M.E. and Heppelmann, J.E., 2015. How smart, connected products are transforming
companies. Harvard business review, 93(10), pp.96-114.
Bahadur, A. and Tanner, T., 2014. Transformational resilience thinking: putting people,
power and politics at the heart of urban climate resilience. Environment and
Urbanization, 26(1), pp.200-214.
Harvey, C.A., Rakotobe, Z.L., Rao, N.S., Dave, R., Razafimahatratra, H., Rabarijohn, R.H.,
Rajaofara, H. and MacKinnon, J.L., 2014. Extreme vulnerability of smallholder
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Gilpin-Jackson, Y., 2015. Transformative learning during dialogic OD. Dialogic organization
development: The theory and practice of transformational change, pp.245-268.

10REASON BEHIND FAILURE OF ENTERPRISE TRANSFORMATIONS
Mazzucato, M., 2015. Building the entrepreneurial state: A new framework for envisioning
and evaluating a mission-oriented public sector. Levy Economics Institute of Bard
College Working Paper, (824).
Vaara, E., Sonenshein, S. and Boje, D., 2016. Narratives as sources of stability and change in
organizations: approaches and directions for future research. Academy of Management
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