If Your Tech Disappeared Tomorrow, Would Anything Change?
Most executives I talk to have a digital transformation strategy. Many have roadmaps, heat maps, investment decks, and initiative portfolios with impressive names. A few even have posters on the wall. However, far too often, the things labeled “transformative” are anything but transformative.
Companies will proudly walk me through their strategic pillars, their technology investments, and their long lists of digital initiatives. Yet underneath the surface, the organization is still running on the same assumptions, habits, hierarchies, handoffs, and mental models that have defined it for decades.
In other words, they have upgraded tools without upgrading the operating model they sit in. And that brings us to the question every modern leader should have the courage to ask:
If the technology you bought magically disappeared tomorrow, would your operating model even notice? Or would everything snap right back to the way it was?
If the answer is the latter, then be honest with yourself. You didn’t transform. You accessorized.
This matters because the moment we call something “transformation,” we raise expectations for outcomes that can only be achieved when the system itself changes. Not the software. Not the dashboard. The system.
A Reminder of What an Industrial Revolution Really Means
It is easy to forget that we are living through one of the largest industrial shifts in history. Not because it came with a single invention like the steam engine. Not because it arrived in a sudden wave of automation. And not because someone put tablets on forklifts.
Industrial revolutions are revolutions in the way industries operate and the way people work. They are revolutions in how value is created, delivered, and captured. They reorganize the flow of work. They reshuffle power structures. They redefine skill sets. They shift what is scarce, what is valuable, and where competitive advantage comes from.
The last decade has been full of these shifts. Data became the raw material of value creation. Cloud platforms redefined scalability. AI became a decision partner instead of a backend capability. Supply chains went from linear to interconnected. Work shifted from labor driven to cognition driven.
These are not gradual improvements. These are tectonic changes. And yet, many organizations survive them by clinging to old operating assumptions and layering new technology on top.
Survival is not the goal of transformation. It is the minimum requirement for continuing to exist.
Why Companies Keep Missing the Point
There is a reason many transformation efforts plateau. And it has nothing to do with technology.
It is because most companies approach transformation like a project to be completed instead of an identity to be adopted. They try to protect what should be replaced. They reduce ambition to match their comfort level. They delegate change to a department that cannot change the system. They launch dozens of digital pilots that never touch the operating model.
They act as if technology alone drives transformation. It never has. It never will.
Technology creates potential. Operating models turn potential into performance.
When these two are not aligned, transformation becomes cosmetic. It produces activity without progress. It delivers dashboards without insight. It creates “digital capabilities” without strategic advantage.
Where True Transformation Actually Begins
You cannot transform your business without transforming how the business works.
This includes how decisions get made.
This includes how information flows.
This includes how work is organized.
This includes how success is measured.
This includes how leaders lead.
And especially, this includes letting go of what no longer serves the future.
Companies often rush to the tools because tools feel concrete. Tools feel manageable. Tools let you claim progress without threatening the status quo. But tools applied to an outdated operating model do not unlock new value. They automate yesterday. Transformation begins with ambition. It scales through culture. It accelerates through clarity. And it becomes real through operating model change.
A Plea to the Leaders Steering the Future
Here is what I ask of every leader driving change inside a company. And especially those tasked with leading transformation.
PLEASE stop treating transformation like a project.
Projects end. Transformation does not.
PLEASE stop protecting legacy structures that no longer create value.
They are comfortable, but they are anchors.
PLEASE stop shrinking your ambition to fit your risk tolerance.
Transformation rewards the bold, not the cautious.
Make decisions that matter.
Run experiments worth learning from.
Lean into discomfort.
Adapt faster than the world around you.
This is what separates the companies that evolve from the companies that endure until they cannot.
The Future Belongs to Those Who Change How They Work
Technology will continue to advance. AI will accelerate. Markets will shift. Customer expectations will rise. Competitors will reinvent themselves. Entire industries will reconfigure around new sources of value.
The question is not whether you adopt new technology. Everyone will. The question is whether your operating model, culture, leadership, and ambition rise to meet the moment.
Because the companies that win tomorrow are not the ones with the largest tech budget. They are the ones willing to do the hardest work of all. The work of letting go. Real transformation is not about adding more digital. It is about becoming something different than you were before.
And if your technology disappeared tomorrow and your business would not notice, then you are not transforming yet. But the good news is that this is fixable. And the second-best time to get serious about it is today.
