Interim Transformation Executive — Integration (Technology)

An adoption path that outlasts the people who drew it

Transformations rarely fail on the day they launch. They fail quietly, months later, when the sponsor who championed them moves on and nobody else feels obliged to finish. The 18 months ahead are built around that risk.

During the first ninety days, the Group Chief Executive Officer and the Interim Transformation Executive should agree the adoption path itself: what adoption means in measurable terms, who sponsors each stage, and the handover points that must survive if any of those sponsors leave. A path with one sponsor per stage is fragile; a strong one names a second, documents the decisions already taken, and measures usage rather than launches.

Around month nine adoption should be measured against that path, and the gaps that leadership change creates should be closed before they stall the programme, not discovered afterwards. If a sponsor departs, the handover should already be written and the successor briefed.

By month 18 adoption should continue without your intervention. Successors should own the path, the remaining transformation exceptions should be closed, and the organisation should be able to explain why the change stuck.

Decisions that rest with you

The appointment carries executive authority rather than counsel. You will agree with the Group Chief Executive Officer which transformation decisions are held locally and at what threshold, and decide what a request for funding, people or a change in controls must prove before it is granted. Inherited commitments go forward or stop on your judgement. You can halt a proposal that leaves its risk with nobody, and send back a value case that treats adoption as a given or ignores what it depends on and what failure would cost. You also approve how the leadership team is structured and how problems rise, settle disputes with the heads of operations, and decide the rhythm at which the board reviews progress, exceptions and pending choices.

Someone who has watched sponsors leave

Through regulatory remediation you kept what the board was told tied to what the operating data showed. Faced with partial facts, you have made decisions that could be unwound and firmed them up as better information arrived. That experience comes from technology or digital platforms organisations with $800 million or more in revenue, a headcount of 1,400 or more and operations in seven countries at least, and the board weighs regulatory remediation, succession and turnaround. Strategy formation at level 4 is the leading capability; at level 3 the board looks for PMO governance, for building a value case and for driving change adoption. Some of your first wins here may be things you halted rather than things you launched, and you are comfortable with that.

A compact route: chief executive, audit chair, investment committee

Selection is compact. Week one is a discreet video call with the Group Chief Executive Officer. The following week, week two, the Audit Committee Chair gives you a case to work through, asking how you would evidence adoption to a sceptical reader. By week three you are in the room with the investment committee, discussing how the path would be funded and protected. Our response to each stage reaches you in writing inside 4 working days.