Key facts
We have already learned that more than 40 percent of digital and AI transformations stall out at the scaling phase.² Incumbents launching new businesses aren’t immune to this issue either—about 80 percent of them fail to scale.³ Top economic performers are almost twice as successful as their peers at sustaining the value of their digital transformations.⁴
More than
40%
of digital and AI transformations stall out at the scaling phase.
Implications
The value from technology-driven innovation comes only when companies drive change deep into the organization’s data architecture, technology environments, talent strategy, and operating model. Executives and their boards must navigate many decisions in driving large-scale transformations, but it’s critical to understand the specific capabilities it takes to scale—such as reusable blocks of code and data products, and standardized tool sets and protocols—and build them into the road map.
²
McKinsey’s global survey of digital strategy, 2019.
³
“The big boost: How incumbents successfully scale their new businesses,” McKinsey, August 27, 2020.
⁴
Laura LaBerge, KateSmaje, and Rodney Zemmel, “Three new mandates for capturing a digital transformation’s full value,” McKinsey, June 15, 2022.