How do I protect my career when executives override the analysis?
Document everything. Your analysis, your recommendation, the decision made, and the rationale given. When political pressure demands a specific outcome, your job is to provide the best full-picture analysis across people, process, data, and technology, then let executives own their decisions. If they choose differently, that's their prerogative. Your documentation proves your methodology was sound when shortcuts fail. Be rigorous, transparent, and professional. Alignment work reduces this risk.
Why do vendor demos always look good but implementations struggle?
Demos use sanitized data, ideal scenarios, and expert presenters who know exactly how to avoid limitations. Your implementation uses messy data, complex exceptions, and users learning the system. The gap between demo and production reality is where implementations fail. Proof-of-concept using your actual data, during the Diagnose phase, reveals which systems actually work in your environment before contracts lock you in. Diagnose with reality, not theater.
How do I know if my organization is ready for transformation?
Honest readiness assessment examines all four dimensions: people (dedicated staff, skills, change capacity), process (current state clarity, willingness to redesign), data (quality, accessibility, governance), and technology (architecture fit, integration readiness). Research shows only 20% of transformations achieve objectives, largely because organizations proceed without honest readiness assessment. That's what the Sense phase is for. Better to delay than to start unprepared.
What's the real cost of conflicted advice from vendors and consultants?
Systems integrators recommend what they implement profitably. Vendors promise what maximizes license revenue. Big 4 firms push partnerships they profit from. The conflict isn't malicious; it's structural. When your advisor benefits from certain outcomes, their recommendations tilt accordingly. Research shows implementations exceed budget by 30-50% median. Some of that variance comes from taking advice from people with financial stakes in specific answers. Independence changes the math.
How long should transformation take, and why do timelines always slip?
Timelines slip because organizations underestimate complexity across people, process, data, and technology. Vendors underestimate to win deals. Political pressure creates unrealistic commitments. Realistic ranges: sensing and scoping takes 2-4 weeks; diagnosis and technology selection takes 3-6 months; transformation execution takes 6-18 months depending on scope. Timeline pressure during sensing creates shortcuts that cause failures during execution. Proper foundation prevents disasters that cost years to fix.
How do I prevent scope expansion from destroying transformation value?
Connect everything to GEM outcomes. Every scope addition gets tested: does this serve growth, efficiency, or moat? Distinguish must-haves from nice-to-haves ruthlessly. Create a parking lot for Phase 2 items. Require business case justification for any additions. Scope expansion happens when organizations fail to prioritize and treat every stakeholder request as equally critical. Not everything is equally important. Saying no to scope additions is saying yes to delivering outcomes that matter.
What if different executives have competing visions for transformation?
This is normal; every function has different priorities. IT wants modern architecture. Operations wants minimal disruption. Finance wants cost reduction. The question isn't whether conflict exists but whether you build alignment before committing resources. Stakeholder alignment during the Transform phase surfaces competing objectives when flexibility still exists. Alignment creates shared ownership. Unresolved misalignment creates political override that destroys technically sound work. Buy-in before execution.
How do I validate transformation potential without disrupting operations?
Diagnostic assessment during the Sense and Diagnose phases, before implementation commitment. Current state analysis uses operational data, process observation, and stakeholder interviews across people, process, data, and technology. Three to six weeks of focused assessment validates improvement potential better than vendor promises with sanitized case studies. Assessment identifies root causes, not just symptoms. Discover what's really happening before committing resources to solutions.
What governance keeps executives informed without slowing everything down?
Tiered decision-making with clear authority levels. Steering committee handles strategic decisions and resource allocation. Execution team handles tactical delivery. Monthly executive reviews focus on GEM outcomes against targets, not project minutiae. Phase gate reviews for major milestones requiring leadership approval. Escalation criteria keep leadership informed when issues emerge while enabling progress between decision points. Governance serves the lifecycle; it doesn't replace it.
How do I address data quality problems before they torpedo the transformation?
Data assessment integrated into the Diagnose phase, not discovered during implementation. Understand current data quality issues. Define master data cleansing requirements. Establish governance policies for ongoing quality. Plan migration strategy for legacy information. AI capabilities and analytics require a clean foundation. 77% of organizations rate data quality as average or worse. Data gaps discovered during diagnosis give you options. Data gaps discovered during execution give you disasters.
What capabilities do teams need to sustain results after go-live?
Capability building starts during the Transform phase, not after go-live when it's too late. Training requirements defined by role and operational impact. Super-user programs create departmental champions. Knowledge transfer from vendors and consultants to internal teams happens throughout, not at the end. Most organizations treat training as afterthought, creating conditions for adoption failure. When consultants leave, does the capability stay? That's the Outperform test.
How do I measure whether transformation actually delivered outcomes?
Define GEM success criteria upfront, not afterward to justify decisions already made. Establish KPI baseline during the Diagnose phase: OTIF, inventory turns, OEE, cash-to-cash, fill rate. Set improvement targets with business case justification. Track monthly during execution against operational metrics that matter. Results documented for board reporting and continuous improvement. If you can't connect it to growth, efficiency, or moat, you can't know whether it worked.
What does Craig actually do through askCraig?
Craig leads IT and digital transformation at a manufacturer. Through askCraig, he writes, speaks, and teaches about the full lifecycle: Sense, Diagnose, Transform, Outperform. He shares frameworks for examining what's actually happening across people, process, data, and technology. He delivers keynotes and corporate talks, facilitates workshops that create clarity and alignment, and is writing a book on what CXOs want from digital transformation. The frameworks are free through content. The speaking and workshops are the paid offerings. His energy goes toward helping companies who make things achieve extraordinary outcomes.
How is Craig's perspective different from Big 4 consultants or vendors?
Big 4 firms profit from implementation duration and complexity. Vendors profit from license revenue. Their perspectives tilt accordingly. Craig has no technology to sell, no implementation hours to staff, no vendor partnerships to protect. Independence changes every perspective. Add 34 years across vendor, integrator, and client sides, plus a current role leading IT at a manufacturer: he sees the full picture across people, process, data, and technology. That cross-perspective view is rare. And he's still learning, still building. A student and a practitioner.
Where can I learn more about the lifecycle approach?
The forthcoming book, "What CXOs Want from Digital Transformation, and How to Deliver It," explores the lifecycle framework in depth, with perspectives on what different executives actually want and how delegates can deliver it. Articles on this site explore specific aspects. Speaking engagements and podcasts cover the framework for different audiences. Or grab 15 minutes on Craig's calendar and explore whether the lifecycle lens fits what you're navigating.