Before You Start Your Transformation, Ask Yourself This: What are we transforming toward - and why?

Transformation is one of the most overused words in business and one of the least examined. Every organization wants to transform faster, smarter, or more efficiently. Yet too often, transformation begins as a delivery exercise rather than a strategic one. The question most leaders skip - and the one that determines long-term success - is deceptively simple: What are we transforming toward, and why?

In this article, you’ll learn how to identify whether your transformation is truly anchored in strategy and what steps you can take tobuild an unbiased, evidence-based foundation for lasting impact.

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CTO Insights: Real Perspectives on Strategy, Execution, and Impact

Welcome to CTO Insights - Amplify’s new series featuring perspectives from transformation and strategy leaders who’ve who have led complex transformations. Each edition brings practical insights on how organizations can connect strategy, execution, and measurable value.

Our goal is simple: to give transformation leaders insights they can apply - the kind that challenge assumptions, sharpen focus, and improve decision-making across the C-suite.

For our first edition, we’re joined by Christian Patten, Transformation & Strategy Leader and Managing Partner at Forbes & Company (LinkedIn). Drawing on 25 years leading multi-billion-dollar transformations across aviation, finance, health, and government, Christian explores the forgotten ingredient in transformation success - a clear, evidence-based strategy.

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Transformations often begin with urgency - a mandate for change, a board directive, or a response to market pressure. Yet in the rush to deliver, many organizations skip a vital step: pressure-testing the strategy itself.

To explore why this step is so critical, and what it takes to build a strategy that truly anchors transformation, I asked transformation leader Christian Patten to share his perspective.

Here’s how he frames the challenge:

Transformations Can Fail Because They Start Before the Strategy Is Set or Understood

Without a clear, fact-based strategy, a transformation can become activity without direction - motion without momentum.

Creating an Unbiased Long-Term Strategy: Building the Platform for Organizational Transformation

In times of transformation, clarity is everything. Yet too often, organizations rush into change without first defining what they are transforming toward.

A long-term, evidence-based strategy provides that clarity - aligning leadership, shaping investment priorities, and creating accountability for progress.

Undertaking a structured approach to strategy development, here’s how organizations can create an unbiased, fact-based foundation for transformation -one that balances short-term performance with long-term sustainability.

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1. Start with Strategic Intent

Every transformation begins with purpose - and so too should the mission and vision of an organization.
Define what success looks like in five to ten years, not as an aspiration but as a measurable strategic intent.
This clarity becomes the North Star that guides every leadership decision, investment, and initiative.

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2. Conduct a Fact-Based Diagnosis

Start with rigorous analysis - separating perception from reality.
Look honestly at performance data, market dynamics, stakeholder expectations, and capability gaps.
Only when the organization understands its true position can it make unbiased choices about where to compete and how to win.

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3. Generate “Real” Strategic Options

Challenge the status quo by developing multiple pathways forward.
Scenario planning and structured debate are critical.
The goal is not to validate existing assumptions, but to test diverse options for growth, resilience, and innovation - ensuring decisions are made with evidence, not hierarchy.

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4. Make Integrated, Coherent Choices

A strong strategy is a system of mutually reinforcing decisions across markets, operating models, talent, and resource allocation.
Here, governance is key. The Board and Executive Team must jointly own trade-offs and maintain discipline in aligning short-term actions with long-term ambition.

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5. Translate Strategy into Execution

This is where many organizations get stuck.
Strategy without execution is theory. Embed the long-term plan into operating rhythms through clear workstreams, initiative owners, and metrics that connect directly to strategic outcomes.
These should include both leading indicators and performance outcomes, underpinned by credible and measurable KPIs.
Strategy should guide how an organization prioritizes, not just what it aspires to achieve as reflected in the annual report.

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Short-Term Focus: Building the Launchpad for Transformation

In most organizations, the first 12 months are about creating a sustainable platform that enables transformation to scale. This requires focus on three essentials

• Governance and alignment - Clarify the roles of the Board, Executives, and transformation leads. Establish transparent decision forums supported by a single source of truth for both transformation outcomes and business performance; ultimately, these two views must merge into one.
• Capability and culture - Invest early in leadership, ownership, trust in data, and culture to build readiness and resilience.
• Create early wins - Deliver tangible outcomes that demonstrate momentum and validate direction.

These steps stabilize the organization and build confidence - transforming ambition into disciplined execution.

A key element is ownership and communication of the strategy, the intent of the work underway, and the choices made in arriving at this point. Continual communication is key, along with visible executive engagement throughout the transformation journey.

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From Strategy to Transformation

A robust, unbiased strategy is not always the prelude to transformation; however, it is the transformation’s foundation.
It brings together clarity of purpose, evidence-based decision-making, and accountable leadership.

By taking a structured approach - as outlined above - organizations can move beyond rhetoric to real results, creating discipline, agility, and confidence to sustain transformation for the long term.

Strategy is not the first step in transformation - it’s the platform that underpins its success.

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About the Authors

Genevieve Smith is VP Global Marketing at Amplify-Now, where she leads the company’s global brand, positioning, and go-to-market strategy. With over 20 years’ experience in the tech industry spanning PE-backed SaaS, large multinationals, and sales and marketing consulting - she brings deep expertise across strategic marketing disciplines. Genevieve is passionate about elevating the role of the Transformation Office and helping organizations connect strategy, execution, and measurable impact.

Guest CTO:
Christian Patten is a Transformation and Strategy Leader with over 25 years of experience driving organizational performance across aviation, financial services, health, and government. As former Chief Transformation Officer at Airservices Australia, he led a $3.5B transformation that delivered more than $100M in performance uplift while maintaining operational excellence and safety. Today, as Managing Partner at Forbes & Company, Christian works with boards and executive teams to design and execute transformations that balance purpose with performance.