Treat your transformation like a merger

Now, contrast that with a transformation effort inside a global enterprise where two business units, each generating billions in revenue, are asked to stop operating independently and start delivering holistic solutions that span the full customer value chain. No less complex. No less consequential. Yet often, there’s no centralized team guiding the integration of strategy, architecture and execution. Why?

Because in transformation, accountability is often distributed. And when everyone’s in charge, no one is.

Breaking the cycle of siloed execution

Despite shared objectives, legacy org structures tend to reinforce autonomy. Business units prioritize their own roadmaps, KPIs and budgets. Even when transformation requires convergence — of product strategy, customer experience or technical systems — teams revert to what’s familiar.