Approximately 70% of large-scale digital transformation programmes fail to meet their stated objectives — and that figure has held across McKinsey, BCG, and Bain research spanning more than a decade.
Three independent studies, one finding: most transformations miss their objectives
- McKinsey research on more than 1,000 organisations over 15 years: ~70% of transformation programmes either miss their stated objectives or leave most of the potential value on the table. BCG's analysis (2024-25) confirms two-thirds of transformation efforts fall short. Bain 2024: 88% fail to achieve original ambitions. Three independent institutions, three methodologies, one consistent finding.
- BCG's analysis of transformation success factors (February 2025) identifies governance design and programme architecture as among the highest-weighted predictors of sustained ROI — not budget size, not technology selection. Organisations that have built a transformation operating model (a permanent governance and sequencing capability) are compounding returns with each cycle.
The organisations pulling ahead built transformation into their operating model
Audit your current transformation programme for how it is designed to run, not what it is trying to achieve. Does your governance structure persist across cycles, or does it dissolve at programme end? Are programmes building capability in layers, or running in isolation with no structural connection to what came before? The organisations pulling ahead have not run better individual programmes — they have built transformation into their operating model. D4 (Digital Transformation 2.0) frames this as the governance design question: each cycle either accelerates the next or resets to zero.
