Chapter Six: The Transformation Zone

This post is the sixth in a series of posts that will eventually become a book. I am looking to improve the text by incorporating readers’ feedback before I go to print. Find out more about this project or start from the beginning.

Read the previous chapter in this series

The Transformation Zone is reserved solely for initiatives that are so disruptive that they cannot be achieved without the total commitment and alignment of the entire enterprise team. Leading such transformations is the single most important function CEOs perform, and their ability to execute in this zone is the signature contribution that defines their tenure.

Specifically, the signature accomplishment in the Transformation Zone is to rapidly accelerate the growth of an emerging line of business to a material size, the goal being to cross a tipping point that normally coincides with a revenue run rate rapidly approaching ten percent of total enterprise revenues. At that scale the new business is well on its way to being a true “going concern.” The inertia of the performance matrix, heretofore a barrier to growth, now works to further accelerate it. We call such efforts transformational initiatives, and they typically entail growing the line of business an order of magnitude in a space of three years or less. In a $30 billion enterprise that equates to a $3B run rate—how is that even possible?

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