Meet the T20: Global leaders in business transformation

In a recent study highlighted on the HBR blog, management experts identified the global leaders in new-growth business transformation in the decade to 2019, dubbed the ‘Transformation 20’ or T20.

Each of the T20 excelled in developing new products and services, new business models, and repositioning their core businesses, resulting in new-growth businesses outside the traditional core becoming a significant share of their overall business make-up.

Netflix’s strategic focus on growing its original content for streaming services helped it top the T20 list, followed by Adobe (with a focus on digital experiences), Amazon (web services/cloud), Tencent (Fintech and transportation) and Microsoft (intelligent cloud).

The researchers identified four major transformation themes: digital transformation, combating climate change, transforming healthcare, and new Fintech-enabled business models. They’ve also noted several key takeaways, including:

1. A company survives and thrives based on its ability to reposition itself to create a new future, and to leverage a purpose-driven mission to that end.
2. Infusing a higher purpose into a company’s culture, a purpose that guides its strategic decisions and gives clarity to everyday tasks, was identified as a key driver of success.
3. Strategic transformation might be the business leadership imperative of this century.

You can check out the original study for more details on the four transformation themes and other companies that made the T20 list in 2019.

On a related note, a recent Accenture study (also covered by the HBR) identified the two main reasons digital transformations fail:

1. Top managers disagreeing on desired outcomes, and
2. A gap between digital capabilities supporting a pilot, and the capabilities available to scale to production.

Thankfully, the study’s authors also outlined potential remedies to these critical digital transformation challenges — more details here.

About the author:

Aamer Fattah is a scientist, innovation leader and deep tech expert.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency, organization, employer or company.