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In PwC’s 28th Annual CEO Survey, 45% of CEOs don’t believe their businesses will be viable in 10 years without reinvention. The confidence crisis is deepening, and so is the complexity of the change agenda. It’s against this backdrop that the Chief Transformation Officer (CTrO) is stepping into the spotlight — not as a delivery role, but as a strategic linchpin, driving productivity, clarity, and return on investment across the enterprise.
Building on our earlier article, The Transformative Edge, which outlined the traits of high-impact CTrOs, this article outlines 10 strategic levers that every CTrO must control to deliver sustained, measurable transformation.
1. Frame smarter investment decisions
Organisations often face a wall of competing priorities and limited capacity. Without a structured way to weigh financial and non-financial impact, transformation investments become reactive — and often wasteful.
The CTrO must introduce a common prioritisation framework, underpinned by cross-functional KPIs, to ensure capital flows to initiatives aligned with strategic outcomes. This allows the organisation to distinguish between value creation and value dilution.
“The value of transformation isn’t always in short-term wins — it’s in long-term resilience.”
Lord Gavin Barwell
Senior Advisor to PwC
2. Sense disruption, then act on it
In a world of constant external shocks, the ability to scan, sense and respond quickly is a differentiator. The CTrO should establish a centralised market sensing capability and foster a culture of safe experimentation and intrapreneurship.
Take inspiration from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who encourages grassroots innovation by asking his entire organisation: “What are the top 5 things I need to know right now?” The message? Innovation isn’t just for strategy off-sites — it’s a daily rhythm.
“Disruption is relentless. Innovation is continuous. Transformation must be too.”
Michael Cooch
Partner, Financial Services - Enterprise Transformation Consulting, PwC United Kingdom
3. Build a lean, scalable transformation engine
Transformation delivery is too often bloated, fragmented, and fragile. The CTrO needs to re-architect the operating model, with sharper role clarity, smarter sourcing strategies (permanent vs. contract vs. consulting vs. managed service), and a focus on throughput, not headcount.
This means industrialising the backbone of transformation with standardised capabilities in portfolio management and benefits realisation, reporting and governance, integrated planning and project controls and capability management and standards — not replicating them in every programme.
4. Eliminate silos, increase flow
Siloed structures and mindsets create friction, delay, and duplication. The CTrO must design a productivity and capacity framework that highlights inefficiencies and gaps, enabling fluid movement of resources, across organisational boundaries, to where they’re needed most.
This isn’t just about matrix management — it’s about embedding a cross-disciplinary culture, where teams embrace multi-skilled roles and career mobility becomes a value, not a risk.
“Transformation starts with the persistent and respectful challenging of old ways of working – this agitating, encouraging and provocation needs to be the catalyst for real change – everything else is built on this.”
Blair Robertson
Chief Transformation Officer, MUFG International & EMEA
5. Compress the timeline to high performance
Organisations often spend months just getting their transformation teams fully operational. The CTrO should tackle latency in onboarding, training, integration, and tooling with the same rigour applied to delivery milestones.
A high-performing transformation engine isn’t just fast — it’s structured for accelerated activation. Build capability intentionally. Embrace the T-shaped model: deep expertise in one area, working knowledge in many.
6. Simplify, standardise, automate
The pressure to both run and change the business simultaneously demands simplification. The CTrO must embed a Kaizen mindset of continuous improvement — not just in delivery, but in how the transformation function itself operates.
The rise of automation and AI is a massive enabler here: eliminate duplication, standardise inputs, align to a golden source of data, and use intelligent tools for decision-support and predictive insights.
7. Elevate transformation data to C-suite standard
Data in transformation is often incomplete, inconsistent, and untrusted — yet it's what leaders rely on to make multimillion-pound decisions. The CTrO must lift transformation data to the benchmark of finance or operations.
That means setting up integrated platforms, robust governance, and visualisation layers that provide real-time insights across programmes and portfolios — enabling faster, smarter decisions.
8. Create structure for momentum, not bureaucracy
Great processes and technology are essential — but they’re a means, not an end. The CTrO must run frequent maturity diagnostics and stage-gates to spot variability, intervene early, and adjust levels of control appropriately.
The key: avoid gold-plating governance. Tailor your controls to the complexity of the work — not every initiative needs a cathedral.
“In a sea of information, clarity comes from targeted interventions and a steadfast drive for immediate value.”
Niall Mann
Director, Financial Services - Enterprise Transformation Consulting, PwC United Kingdom
9. Lead change with people, not just plans
Transformation lives or dies on adoption. Without early stakeholder involvement, robust change management, and embedded communication, even the most strategic programmes will flounder.
The CTrO must prioritise readiness with the same intensity as timelines and budgets — because a disengaged, or resistant, workforce is the fastest way to slow down change.
10. Make benefits the nucleus of the journey
Too often, benefits are tracked late, loosely, or not at all. The CTrO must embed a balanced benefits framework that includes financial and non-financial outcomes — from revenue growth, cost savings and productivity to customer NPS, risk mitigation and employee satisfaction.
Link these measures directly to strategic outcomes. Review them early and often. And make benefits realisation part of performance, not just post-mortem.
The CTrO as Value Architect
The Chief Transformation Officer isn’t just a portfolio lead. Done right, they are the architect of the optimal route to value — aligning strategy to execution, prioritisation to performance, people to purpose.
They are the connective tissue across silos, the accelerant of capability, and the custodian of what is good for the overall business, rather than individual functions or divisions.
The CTrO is here to stay – if the role delivers on its promise. A glorified aggregator, a pass-through reporter, a bureaucratic overhead or ‘methods and tools’ focused incarnations will eventually fail. Only those who own these 10 levers — and pull them with intention — will create a transformation capability that is valued, and ‘sticks’.
Need to set up, scale or evolve your Transformation Office?
PwC’s global transformation team helps organisations unlock value, drive results and build lasting capability. If you want to discuss how to architect this capability for success – contact us to find out more.
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