How business leaders can adopt a transformational mindset that goes beyond digital

One of the greatest skills a modern business leader can master is the ability to make bold decisions that shape and secure the future of their organization, while continuing to effectively operate an existing business. This is the art and science of balancing pressure to perform in a current situation with the need to transform in a rapidly changing digital world.

The hardest part of any transformation can be the choices made every day to move towards future success. Navigating change often means having the courage to let go of things that made us successful in the past in order to make room for new skills, ways of working, partnerships, and opportunities.

In today’s landscape, as generative AI and machine learning rapidly reshape business operations, transformation has moved from aspiration to imperative – yet many organizations still fall short by mistaking digitization for true transformation.

While 99% of organizations report progress with generative AI – from defining use cases to actual implementation – many struggle to measure success and achieve ROI. In fact, 27% of leaders cite the high costs of implementing AI as a major pain point, underscoring the challenges of achieving clear, measurable outcomes.

Digital business transformation means reshaping organizations through either cost-out innovation or growth-oriented value creation. In either case (or ideally combined), these approaches can enhance operational agility and effectiveness, and make a meaningful difference to customer experience, operational agility, and effectiveness.

Businesses need to reimagine how they organize, operate, and evolve new products and services, rather than purely digitizing what is already in place. Only now are we seeing the true importance of digital business transformation, as more and more organizations realize that a digital “bolt on” strategy just isn’t going to cut it; transformation is essential for a company’s survival.

Consider a business like Disney. In order to enable a new business model, it disrupted the licensing, sales, and distribution of its greatest asset: its content. Rather than digitizing piecemeal, it took on the challenge of evolving a new subscription-based streaming service that would meet the consumer content demands commonly associated with Netflix, and created an experience that reflects the Disney brand. It fundamentally reorganized the business, placing the management of direct-to-consumer distribution platforms, technology, and international operations under a single leader and integrating its technology and data to enable more personalization and improved user experiences.

This is the mindset business leaders need to adopt to thrive. It’s about moving beyond incremental improvements, cost cutting, and risk mitigation to delivering greater value.

In a highly competitive market, business leaders can often be tempted to focus solely on immediate, ROI-driven initiatives. While quick wins are important for demonstrating progress and sustaining momentum, they must be carefully aligned with a larger transformation roadmap to avoid undermining long-term goals.

Data suggests that more than two-thirds of organizations lack success metrics for their AI initiatives. This underscores the importance of continually benchmarking progress against an organization’s longer-term strategy.

For instance, a business leader might introduce an AI-driven tool to optimize supply chain efficiency, and deliver immediate cost savings and improved delivery times. However, instead of treating this as a standalone success, they position it as a pilot within a broader strategy to fully digitize and automate supply chain operations. This approach helps ensure that short-term wins are not just isolated achievements, but are instead milestones on the path to achieving more profound transformation goals such as enhanced resilience, scalability, and customer responsiveness.

The delicate balance required to achieve quick results while advancing long-term imperatives raises a fundamental leadership question: how to sustain operational performance today, while building capabilities needed to thrive in the future.

This balance hinges on what Publicis Sapient calls SPEED capabilities: Strategy, Product, Experience, Engineering and Data & AI. When these elements work in concert, the path to successful transformation is unlocked. Leaders are able to align immediate actions with their broader vision and ultimate objectives.

SPEED is more than an acronym – by harnessing technology, organizations are able to bring substantive improvements to their operations at pace. For a large healthcare organization, Publicis Sapient was able to use AI to reduce the time required for a large mainframe implementation from 10 years to three. Saving time saves money, while improving operational performance and building the future-ready capabilities essential for success.

Truly successful transformation initiatives aren’t just about systems and processes. They’re about people. Cultural change is key to any transformation effort, and employees must be engaged and aligned with new business models.

Over 75% of European companies report difficulties in finding employees with AI-related technical and managerial skills, slowing their digital transformation efforts. This underscores the importance of upskilling within organizations, and factoring it into long-term transformation initiatives. Leaders must therefore actively involve employees in the journey. Often, resistance stems from a lack of understanding or confidence. Engaging teams early and often helps build trust and a sense of shared purpose.

Fostering a culture of continuous learning is essential. It’s imperative to recognize that the key skill in this rapidly evolving landscape is the ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn. As technologies evolve, so too must the skills and capabilities of your workforce. Upskilling and reskilling initiatives not only empower employees but also ensure the organization remains agile in the face of change. Everyone must cultivate adaptability and embrace change as the only constant. Exponential change is inherently uncomfortable, so we need to build up this muscle to better deal with it.