#4 - APRIL 2025
Overview
You arenât likely to lead people through wrenching change if they donât trust you. And if theyâre to trust you, they have to know you: who you are, where youâve come from, and why you hold the views you do. Ideally, theyâll end up not only understanding you but also empathising with you.
Stephen Denning, former Director of Knowledge Management Development at the World Bank
THREE EXAMPLES
OF A TRANSFORMATION
FAILURE
Kodak: turning a blind eye to digital technology
A leader in silver halide photography, Kodak ignored the rise of digital technology, despite patenting it in 1975. The result: bankruptcy in 2012
Yahoo: when the web page no longer refreshes
Unable to compete with Google and Facebook, Yahoo wasted billions on useless acquisitions, like Tumblr, before being sold to Verizon in 2017.
Nokia : wrong number
Dominant in the 2000s, Finlandâs Nokia underestimated the arrival of the iPhone and Android, clinging to an obsolete system. In 2013, it had to sell its mobile division to Microsoft.Microsoft.
THREE EXAMPLES
OF A TRANSFORMATION
SUCCESS
Netflix: from the DVD to streaming
Before becoming a famous video-on-demand platform, Netflix enabled users to rent DVDs by mail. The company shipped its last disc, to the United States, on Friday 29 September 2023. Today, the company has over 280 million subscribers worldwide and produces a wealth of fiction programmes.
LEGO : those timeless bricks
After a financial crisis in the 2000s, LEGO successfully diversified by focusing on strong partnerships with popular franchises (Star Wars, Harry Potter), films, video games, and educational products, while staying true to its DNA.
Adobe : the transition to the SaaS model
By abandoning traditional software sales in favor of a subscription model with Creative Cloud, Adobe increased its recurring revenue and strengthened its position in the creative tools market.
85
%
OF MANAGERS SAY THEY ARE
INSUFFICIENTLY TRAINED
TO SUPPORT
TRANSFORMATION
(OpinionWay survey for Coach Hub,
carried out with 310 managers and
110 executives, November 2021)
IT HAPPENED IN…
1990
THE AGE OF STRATEGIC
RECONFIGURATION
Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad introduced core competences in Competing for the Future. Their theory transformed businesses by pushing them to focus on their differentiating strengths to stay competitive in a swiftly changing world.
1994
ERP (ENTERPRISE
RESOURCE PLANNING)
The introduction of ERP software (particularly SAP) enabled companies to integrate their key processes â finance, supply chain, HR â into a single system. This marked a radical transformation in the management of organisations and their transition to digitisation.
2010s
LARGE-SCALE DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATION
The early 2010s saw the widespread adoption of digital technologies: cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence. These tools revolutionised economic and operational models, making digital transformation essential for businesses to survive.