Evidence before investment: making better transformation decisions

BCG has reported that 70% of digital transformations fall short of their objectives. In transportation and logistics the pattern is familiar: a technology is selected before the operating model is defined, a rollout starts before one site has proved the business case, and nobody measures realised value after go-live.

Five gates, five decisions

• Gate 1 — Value Scan™: is there a material opportunity worth going deeper on?
• Gate 2 — Value Assessment™: what is real, what is at risk, and how do we compare?
• Gate 3 — Value Blueprint™: is there an investable business case with owners and milestones?
• Gate 4 — Proof of Value™: did one lane, site or use case deliver the expected result?
• Gate 5 — Scale: roll out with the right partners and track realised value.

Each gate ends in Go, Adjust or Stop. Capital grows only as fast as confidence does, which means weak ideas stop when stopping is still cheap.

Three rules that make gates work

• Fix the baseline before the first euro, dollar or real is spent. Without it, every result is an opinion.
• Separate the people who design the business case from the people who sell the solution. Vendor-neutral selection protects the economics.
• Keep governing after go-live. Value that is not tracked against the baseline is rarely captured in full.

The decision for you

List your three largest initiatives. For each one, ask which gate it has actually passed — not which stage the project plan says it is in. The gaps between the two are where value is most at risk.