We’re featured in Business Reporter’s Best of British Business series, published by The Independent, discussing why so many digital projects fail – and what the organisations that succeed are doing differently. You can watch the full conversation here.
Here’s what it comes down to.
The pressure is real. The rush is the problem.
Every industrial business we work with is facing the same pressures: ageing assets, a retiring workforce, evolving cyber threats, energy price volatility, tightening regulation and the push towards decarbonisation. None of this is going away. But the hype around AI and automation has created a climate where leaders feel they have to act now – and that urgency is pushing them towards the wrong starting point.
“Leaders have a fear of missing out,” says our COO Paul Bayliss. “This is really a forced sense of urgency that leaders are pushed into. They start to ask the wrong questions, and if they ask the wrong questions, they’re going to get the wrong answers.”
We see it often: organisations investing in technology before they’ve defined the problem it’s supposed to solve, or committing to a “big bang” rollout that looks compelling in a boardroom but collapses under the weight of operational reality. Research suggests around 70% of digital projects fail to meet their expected goals.
Scepticism isn’t the problem. Bad implementation is.
Most leaders we speak to aren’t sceptical about what technology can do. They’re sceptical about what happens when it’s badly delivered. As our Chief Revenue Officer Dominic Molloy puts it: “Their scepticism isn’t necessarily around the technology. It’s around the way the programme was implemented.”
That scepticism comes from real experience – projects that promised great outcomes and delivered more risk, more cost and limited adoption instead.
What works looks different to what most people expect
In the interview, we share several examples from our work across critical infrastructure and industrial process. One that illustrates the point well: a large food distributor was convinced it needed to invest tens of millions of pounds in a new facility to increase throughput. Rather than jumping to a capital investment, we started with the operation itself. We built a digital twin of the existing facility, identified where the real inefficiencies sat, and helped the client realign its processes. No new facility was needed. Tens of millions saved.
“The real transformation happens when they realise they have to adapt the way they lead, the way they manage their decision-making process,” says Molloy.
The most effective programmes we’ve been involved in don’t begin with technology. They begin with a clear understanding of the outcome you actually need.
Ambitious, pragmatic, patient
“Digital transformation is a must. It’s not optional,” says our CEO Dominic Murphy. “If you don’t embrace change, you will not stay competitive.” But as Business Unit Director Oliver Stone adds: “Digital transformation takes time. We have to be patient and pragmatic.”
We’re also investing in what comes next. Through apprenticeships, early-career development and STEM outreach, we’re building the skills pipeline that British industry will depend on as experienced engineers retire and the demands on operational technology continue to grow.
The video above covers all of this and more – including how we deliver change without disrupting your live operations.