Six early lessons from a digital transformation in Kazakhstan

The digital transformation project we recently started in Kazakhstan is already providing valuable lessons that extend well beyond this particular engagement.

While every organization and transformation is different, some conditions for success appear remarkably consistent across industries, company sizes and geographies.

So, what are we learning?

For confidentiality reasons, we cannot share examples from our client. Instead, we use well-known examples from international companies to illustrate the principles we are observing in practice.

1. Start with a clear vision — and leadership willing to stand behind it

Digital transformation needs direction before it needs technology.

A clear vision establishes where the organization is going and why. Leadership then needs to translate that direction into priorities, decisions and behaviours that allow people to act.

Microsoft's transformation under Satya Nadella provides a useful example. Beyond shifting Microsoft's strategic direction, Nadella challenged a culture characterized by internal competition and encouraged greater collaboration, learning and customer orientation.

The lesson is simple: transformation becomes considerably harder when people understand what is changing, but not why.

2. The CEO cannot outsource ownership of transformation

Digital transformation may involve technology teams, consultants, transformation offices and specialist partners. Ownership, however, must remain with leadership.

When the CEO visibly owns the transformation, it sends an important message: this is not an IT initiative. It is a business priority.

GE's digital transformation under Jeff Immelt illustrates both the ambition and complexity involved. Immelt personally championed GE's digital direction and invested heavily in building the capabilities required to reposition the company for an increasingly digital industrial economy.

Whatever the eventual outcome of a transformation, senior leadership involvement signals its strategic importance and helps mobilize the organization behind it.

3. Create room to experiment — and learn when experiments fail

Transformation cannot be designed entirely in advance.

Organizations need room to test assumptions, experiment with new approaches and learn before committing at scale. This requires accepting that some experiments will not produce the expected result.

Netflix provides a familiar example. Its transition from DVD rental to streaming required the company to develop new technology, capabilities and ultimately a fundamentally different business model. That evolution involved continuous experimentation and learning.

Failure becomes valuable when the organization learns faster because of it.

4. Keep the customer at the centre

Technology creates possibilities. Customers determine whether those possibilities create value.

Digital transformation should therefore begin with understanding how customer expectations, behaviours and needs are changing — and where technology can genuinely improve the experience.

Amazon remains one of the clearest examples of this principle. Its technology and data capabilities are extensive, but they are consistently applied around customer convenience, choice, speed and experience.

The question should therefore not simply be “What can this technology do?” but “What does it allow us to do better for our customers?”

5. Communicate progress — especially the small victories

Large transformations take time. People rarely experience the final outcome at the beginning, so they need evidence that progress is being made.

This makes communication more than an information exercise.

Sharing early achievements, lessons and small victories creates momentum. It makes an otherwise abstract transformation visible and gives employees evidence that their effort is producing results.

Delta Air Lines has demonstrated the importance of employee engagement and communication throughout its digital initiatives, using multiple channels and dedicated resources to keep employees informed and involved.

Small victories matter because transformation needs momentum long before it delivers its final result.

6. Build the capacity for change, not just the project

A transformation programme has a beginning and an end. The organization's need to change does not.

This is why developing a culture that can absorb and respond to change is as important as implementing individual initiatives.

Change ambassadors can play an important role here. Employees who understand the transformation, believe in its purpose and can translate it into the everyday reality of their colleagues can create a bridge between the programme and the wider organization.

Marriott's investments in digital capabilities, employee development, innovation and cross-functional collaboration illustrate how organizations can build change capability alongside technological investment.

The objective should ultimately be larger than delivering one transformation successfully.

It should be to leave the organization better able to manage the next one.

Are these the only lessons?

Certainly not.

Technology architecture, governance, capabilities, data, cybersecurity, investment priorities, operating models and many other factors can determine whether a digital transformation succeeds.

But at the outset of our current assignment, these six stand out:

clarity of vision, visible leadership ownership, experimentation, customer focus, communication and the capacity to change.

Perhaps the most important observation is that very few of them are fundamentally about technology.

Digital transformation may be enabled by technology.

Delivering it remains an organizational challenge.