Up to 70 percent of transformation projects fail. When you stop and think about all that represents—lost capital, lost time, and lost momentum—it’s staggering. Now, imagine reducing the failure rate to 30 percent. Consider the value and return on investment that would yield.
I’m paraphrasing something Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, a leading expert on project management, said during an HBR Future of Business 2025 masterclass. As someone who consumes a massive amount of information, I’m always looking for content that rises above the noise and stands out. This masterclass was a recent example of a speaker whose ideas stuck with me.
As I listened to Nieto-Rodriguez speak, I kept making connections to the work we’re doing at Stellix to support transformation that actually drives outcomes—for us and for our customers.
Most Organizations Aren’t Built for Continuous Transformation
One of the core challenges Nieto-Rodriguez raised, that immediately resonated with me, is that most organizations aren’t built for continuous transformation.
He described something that many leaders are grappling with right now: “We have organizations designed for the 19th century, we have skills for the 20th century, and we're trying to compete in the 21st century. So that is a very challenging agenda for CEOs and boards to tackle.”
Very challenging, indeed.
Nieto-Rodriguez emphasized the need for organizations to build what he described as an “internal transformation muscle.”
At Stellix, we’re committed to building this capability of internal transformation, and we’ve made significant progress with key initiatives:
- Employing an internal innovation strategy that calls on us to use ourselves as guinea pigs as we seek to understand emerging technologies and how they could benefit customers.
- Rethinking what customer centricity looks like in a digital world.
- Deploying AI holistically across the organization and developing a company that’s truly AI-ready.
- Allocating resources to change management as innovative technology reshapes our business processes, workflows, and responsibilities.
But for life sciences partnership to provide optimal value to customers, both sides must be working to build their internal transformation muscles. That means not only us, but also our customers.
Building a Stronger Internal Transformation Muscle
One of my biggest takeaways from 2025 was that you can check all the boxes, but none of it matters if you don’t reach the desired outcome. True value is derived from outcomes, not outputs.
In his masterclass, Nieto-Rodriguez shared nine tips to accelerate transformation and achieve outcomes. I chose five that resonated most with me—not an easy task, as my head was nodding along vigorously to just about everything he said. I hope that my colleagues in the broader life science ecosystem will find resonance and maybe a few nuggets of practical guidance from these reflections.
1. Secure buy-in and engagement before launching a project
As Nieto-Rodriguez spoke about ways companies can secure buy-in and engagement across departments, “co-creating from the bottom up” and “breaking silos” stood out to me.
In 2025, Stellix created transformation teams organized around four business themes: digitize, innovate, organize, and grow. Each team brings together people from across the company. Crucially, there are no vice presidents on these teams; this was an intentional choice we made to create space for bottom-up participation.
Nieto-Rodriguez posited that the most engaged people in any transformation are volunteers—people who genuinely want to work on something because it matters to them and they see its value.
We took that idea to heart when forming our transformation teams. Because when you’re asking people to take on more, it’s important that they have a say in what they’re doing. Our approach was to invite people to participate rather than assign them to a specific team. We let people know they had been selected, but made it clear the decision to join was optional. If someone felt more strongly about contributing elsewhere, we listened.
2. Create and nurture teams, not just groups of people
On the surface, the concept of “a team” vs. “a group of people” might sound like semantics. But there is a noticeable difference between a team that has taken the time to integrate and align and a group of people brought together quickly without the opportunity to build relationships or trust.
Nieto-Rodriguez shared that when he begins a transformation effort, his top priority is team-building. Before discussing any specific initiative, time is spent helping people get to know one another, as many transformation teams comprise individuals who are working together for the first time. That initial investment builds rapport and allows people to understand how work gets done, why certain decisions are made, and who is responsible for what.
The story of the Moderna vaccine is a powerful example of what strong teams can accomplish. The group involved—including NECI, a Stellix Group company—worked fully remote, around the clock, to deliver a life-saving vaccine in less than a year. Creating that kind of outcome under extremely difficult conditions requires people who work well together, communicate effectively, and stay aligned under pressure.
Building true teams in an era of hybrid work isn’t easy. While not every task requires an office, I find something is lost when teams don’t spend enough time together. Those of us who are serious about transformation must figure out how to maintain an environment where the crucial connections that unite people in pursuit of a common goal are still possible.
3. Aim for 30% of projects to deliver exponential impact
According to Nieto-Rodriguez, roughly 95 percent of transformation efforts result in incremental improvements. In his view, 30 percent of projects should aim to deliver exponential impact.
Of course, the bigger the impact, the higher the risk. Spending time in that space of uncertainty can be uncomfortable but necessary. I go back to the Moderna vaccine: the concept of delivering a first in kind, new modality vaccine in less than a year is almost unbelievable. But that’s precisely the kind of project that delivers exponential impact.
It’s on leaders to set the tone from the top, creating a culture where people are willing to tolerate risk and encouraged to take big swings.
4. Establish shorter timelines
In the past, it wasn’t unusual for transformation projects to stretch three to five years or longer, but as Nieto-Rodriguez pointed out, long timelines are no longer tenable. The pace of change is too fast, and the level of uncertainty is too high. Anyone claiming they can lay out a reliable three-year business plan is ignoring how quickly technology and market conditions are shifting.
Work no longer moves in a clean, sequential order. Teams are planning multiple concurrent efforts, running tests, reassessing what they’re learning, and experimenting in real time. Achieving meaningful outcomes means embracing shorter work cycles: focusing on projects that run for several months, often broken down into 60 or 90-day sprints. This structure enables agility and adjustment as conditions inevitably change.
5. Never start a project before you’ve finished 2-3 existing projects
If you know me well, it won’t surprise you that I bristled at this one. It’s Nieto-Rodriguez’s belief that if organizations listed all their active projects, they could likely cancel half—possibly more—without significant impact on the business.
I’m guessing I’m not the only leader who had a visceral reaction to that statement. How can we be expected to narrow our focus when there is so much work to be done and all of it is important?
But I know there is wisdom in Nieto-Rodriguez’s advice. With too many initiatives moving at once, attention and effort are spread thin. At some point, leaders have to decide what matters most and commit to elevating it above the rest.
Stellix’s Approach
As I listened to Nieto-Rodriguez, what struck me most was how validated I felt. Many of the principles he outlined—focusing on outcomes, investing in teams, shortening timelines—are the same ones we’ve been applying at Stellix over the past few years. Hearing them articulated so clearly reinforced for me that we’re on the right path, even when the work feels messy or uncomfortable.
Imagine what the future could look like if businesses across industries committed to building the internal muscle that makes transformation successful. That’s the future I envision for Stellix and our customers, and I’ll continue doing what it takes to make it a reality.
