Transformation has become a buzzword for businesses and organisations in general, and even for society. We no longer talk of initiating, promoting and managing change and innovation, but we talk of the need to transform. So, businesses are not evolving or being redeveloped but are being transformed. The mantra has become that if businesses want to compete more effectively, they need to transform themselves. Gradual change is not enough but they need to change completely the way they go about their affairs.

Traditionally, organisations used to talk of transformation when they went through mergers and acquisitions. The new ownership structure would demand a completely new way of doing things. They also used to talk of transformation when new regulations came into force. Malta experienced this when it joined the EU in 2004 and a whole new set of legislation transformed the local business landscape.

Otherwise, changes in society, in markets and even in technology happen more gradually and with some foresight, one can usually prepare for them. Eventually, this would result in a radical change, but done in a very ‘quiet’ way.

Business transformation is radical but not so quiet.

One may claim that the coronavirus epidemic of 2020 and 2021 has contributed to this transformation as employee attitudes changed, we had to learn how to work differently, customers’ behaviour and perceptions changed, and technology kept developing to face the challenges posed by the coronavirus. However, I am not so sure that the coronavirus has forced the need for transformation.

Changes were already on the way in all the aspects I mentioned, and these changes were unavoidable. Companies have been talking of digital transformation for a long time.

Maximising employee engagement had started making way for maximising the employment experience of employees. The need to remain competitive had already kicked off a process in the way businesses operate, and societal changes were impacting on customers’ behaviours.

We need to add to this the increased impact of regulations to combat financial crime and the heightened awareness of climate change. A sense started creeping in that the business models we had had run their time and were no longer sustainable in the long run.

What the coronavirus did was bring home these realities, and the need for business transformation became suddenly more apparent and more acute. However, it was coming anyway, with or without the coronavirus.

So, what has changed is the pace of change and hence the talk on transformation.

Each organisation would need to go through its own transformation process. However, there is one common denominator: a business can become more competitive (which is the objective of transformation) if it adds value.

This means having employees doing higher value-adding work. It means giving customers higher value services. It means offering new products which have a leading edge over competitive products. It means having an organisation structure that does not inhibit value creation.

History is full of examples of how successful companies have created value, and how others have failed because they stopped or slowed down in creating value. Referring to a sector in which I am directly involved, market research companies are no longer referred to as such, but are now being referred to as insight companies, as the secret of success in this line of business is not to provide information but to provide knowledge and insight.

The snag in this transformation process is that organisation culture may not yet be fully geared up to make this leap forward. It would be easy to blame management’s reluctance to embrace empowerment for this. However, employers would tell you also that it is very difficult to find employees who are willing to take on responsibility; they just wait to be told what to do. Business transformation requires not only empowerment but also a sense of accountability.