Companies understand the benefits of FOT and, in theory, are prepared to blaze a trail – but, in practice, where do they start? How do they drive the programme to a successful, self-sustaining outcome? What are the key factors that determine success or failure? And, crucially, what can be learned from companies that have done it before? We like to share the major learnings from this research, with the aim of answering the key question: What is the secret to a successful FOT? One message comes through loud and clear: the more heavily and actively involved the Senior Leadership Team (SLT), the more successful the project.
What is Front Office Transformation?
The secret to successfully transforming the Front Office
- 1. Building a FOT culture is crucial
- 2. Employee enablement is key in FOT
- 3. Budget
1. Building a FOT culture is crucial
With any workplace transformation project comes a sense of resistance from employees; it’s natural to be sceptical about change. FOT is no exception and, in fact, a massive 98% of all respondents said that FOT proved to be a major cultural challenge for their employees. This figure shows that companies must not underestimate the broad impact of a transformation programme. If you do not bring your employees along on the journey and help them understand what you are trying to achieve, and how it benefits both the business and them, then success will likely be limited.
Developing a transformation culture is a core tenet of the Leadership Edge, and the Leadership Edge makes companies’ FOTs more likely to be successful. Some 68% of active-leadership companies said their FOT was a success, compared to just 45% of passive-leadership companies.
2. Employee enablement is key in FOT
Building a positive transformation culture cannot be done without proper employee enablement. The Leadership Edge has a strong role to play in this regard; there is a correlation between active SLTs and better enablement throughout the entire process. When it comes to enablement activities, active-leadership companies are more likely to offer innovative options. Four in five (80%) active-leadership companies are investing in experience-based enablement, such as escape rooms, compared to just half (50%) of passiveleadership companies. This is a crucial point, because experience-based learning tends to be among the most effective methods of enablement. Passive-leadership companies tend to invest more in traditional training, such as selfpaced online training modules (55% of passiveleadership companies, compared to only 43% of active-leadership companies.)
3. Budget
When it comes to major projects like FOT, securing sufficient budget is essential. Activeleadership companies are likely to have had a better experience in this regard. Although passive-leadership companies found getting FOT budget approval much easier (35%) than active-leadership companies (26%), three in 10 (28%) of them said the FOT budget was not adequate. Greater scrutiny of FOT budgets by the activeleadership companies resulted in a much greater chance of securing the funds necessary for the project, with only 16% of these companies saying their FOT budgets were inadequate. This suggests that an easily secured FOT budget is perhaps ill-conceived and steeped in shortterm thinking. Having a more rigorous approach to securing budget suggests that the company is putting a lot of thought and resources into the FOT, which will likely stand it in good stead as it is rolled out.
Financial services
New PwC research reveals that too few financial services businesses are executing Front Office Transformation with complete success. How can the sector get better at transformation?
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Retail and consumer goods
The retail and consumer goods sector is among the most successful at Front Office Transformation, new research from PwC reveals. How can it capitalise on that success and supercharge its future transformation?
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Industrial manufacturing and automotive
Automotive and manufacturing companies are having limited success with transforming their front office. What can companies in the sector do to turn their fortunes around?
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