eBook preview: Adaptable by Design

Actionable strategies for balancing growth and efficiency in 2025 and beyond

The following is the preface to our latest eBook. Download the full version here.

Business leaders have seen their share of change in recent years. Rapidly shifting consumer behaviors. Geopolitical uncertainty. Economic turbulence. Paired with the pressure to innovate with rapidly advancing technology such as AI, it’s enough to cause decision paralysis.

As digital leaders prepare to withstand more economic shockwaves in 2025, they are faced with a dual mission from the C-suite: efficiency and sustainable growth are both named as top priorities. How to balance the push-and-pull dynamics of investing in digital initiatives while under closer scrutiny of budgets and performance numbers?

Leaders will need to focus on pulling the right levers to keep costs under control while balancing customer-centric improvements. These are difficult things to get right, and it’s a common temptation for businesses to turn to technology as a quick fix. However, while technology can be a force multiplier for successful business outcomes, the ability of these investments to reap returns is not guaranteed. A 2023 survey by Oliver Wyman found that only 25% of companies that attempted a digital transformation program in the past three years successfully met their goals. Moreover, few transformation programs appear to maintain performance improvements beyond three years.

What trips up transformation efforts? In a recent McKinsey survey, respondents identified two main culprits — overly complex organizational structures and unclear roles and responsibilities that lead to wasted time with redundant work and slow decision-making processes . These inefficiencies can be costly, with an average Fortune 500 company looking at roughly $250 million of wasted labor costs per year.

Complicated organizational structures and vague roles and responsibilities are some of the same challenges our clients come to us with. In 25 years of working with enterprises, we’ve heard about the difficulties they face in finding crucial information and connecting the dots to align internal teams on a strategy. To help them clear these obstacles and gain the full value of their digital investments, our approach is grounded in building adaptability maturity — so that they can recalibrate when unexpected headwinds hit. 

In our experience, we’ve found that companies that do succeed with their transformation plans have the following key characteristics:

1. They realize the need to understand the root of productivity problems and create a strategy to tackle those, instead of resorting to technology as a default BandAid. 
2. There is a clear vision and purpose that aligns stakeholders on the need for transformation.
3. They changed operational processes to ensure sustainable transformation. 

In other words, successful companies recognize that growth thrives on strong connections with internal and external stakeholders, not fleeting tech trends or transactions. We often tell our clients, “Your tech stack is not your strategy.” Information and processes are used by people, all part of an interdependent system — like a tower of building bricks.

So how can organizations achieve greater adaptability — internally and externally — going forward? In this guide, we identify three key initiatives including real-world tactics from our clients. You can tackle any or all of them, or like a block tower, use them in combination for a more stable strategy roadmap for 2025. 

Download the Adaptable by Design PDF today and start adapting for what’s next!