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Large digital transformations get messy when new systems meet outdated infrastructure, fragmented processes and teams working to different priorities. Jean-Loup Richet’s account of a nearly $1 billion, three-year overhaul at an unnamed tourism company argues that the work succeeds through foundational repair and organizational alignment—not technology alone. The case is an opinion account, not an independently documented evaluation.

Why the transformation became complicated

Richet says a company executive acknowledged in 2015 that the business was years behind technologically. Modernization then spanned subsidiaries and operations that relied on homegrown tools, spreadsheets, departmental processes and legacy systems that did not communicate.

The scale made local fixes risky. Richet describes roughly 180 locations and a source-to-pay procurement initiative affecting six departments. A change in one area could alter how another team handled orders, inventory, data or decisions. The central challenge was therefore not simply installing software; it was understanding and coordinating an interconnected operating network.

Richet characterizes the program as nearly $1 billion over three years, but his article provides no financial breakdown. Those figures, as well as the company details and outcomes below, are his account; the company is unnamed.

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What leaders can learn from the case

Repair foundations before adding technology

New systems can make broken processes run faster without making them work better. Where departments use different procedures or rely on disconnected legacy tools, first identify the underlying work, data and handoffs. Richet’s account describes pausing to address failing infrastructure rather than layering a new system over it.

This does not mean delaying every modernization until every old system is perfect. It means making dependencies visible and deciding which foundational problems must be addressed for the proposed change to deliver its intended value.

Manage the network, not isolated silos

A supply chain can sound like a sequence of steps; a supply network better captures reciprocal dependencies among internal teams and outside partners. Richet says the team mapped orders, information, decisions and dependencies across that network. That view helps reveal how a local improvement—such as changing procurement procedures—could shift work or risk elsewhere.

Leaders can use this map to agree on end-to-end outcomes, identify owners for cross-team decisions and surface gaps before rollout. The aim is to avoid optimizing one department at the expense of the whole operation.

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Bring end users into design and rollout

People who perform the work can identify practical mismatches that an executive design team may miss. Richet describes involving end users during design and implementation, with feedback informing the rollout. Participation is useful only when teams can see that input being considered and when the resulting process changes are communicated clearly.

Give cross-functional governance authority

Richet recounts an executive steering group meeting bi-weekly to raise and resolve conflicts across functions. A forum like this can prevent an unresolved dependency from becoming a series of local workarounds. Its value depends on having the right decision-makers, a clear route for escalating issues and authority to settle trade-offs across departments.

Change roles and practices alongside systems

A system can change what information people see and what steps they perform, but it cannot by itself settle who owns a decision, how teams coordinate or what behaviors are rewarded. Richet describes changes to roles and training alongside system and process changes. For leaders, that means treating skills, incentives, governance and day-to-day behavior as part of the transformation rather than as launch communications after the technical work is done.

Expect adaptation to continue after deployment

Richet’s account presents technology and the organization as adapting to each other over time. A successful launch is not proof that every process, role or system is settled. Plan for feedback, clarify how issues will be prioritized, and revisit whether the operating model is producing the intended outcomes as people begin using it.

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What the case reportedly achieved—and what it cannot prove

Richet says that by the end of the three-year program, procurement and inventory had a unified core system, data visibility had improved, governance was clearer and departments communicated more. These are reported results, not independently evaluated measures. The article does not provide a financial breakdown, quantified performance results or enough company detail to assess how much of the change came from technology versus organizational work.

Richet also cites estimates that approximately 70% of digital transformation initiatives fail to meet objectives, that roughly three-quarters fail to deliver ROI, and that lack of user adoption and behavioral change accounts for 70% of failures. His article does not identify the original studies behind those figures, so they should be read as claims reported by Richet, not independently verified benchmarks.

The practical test for a transformation plan

Before approving a major program, leaders can test whether the plan addresses both the technical estate and the way work gets done:

  • Foundations: Are key processes, data and infrastructure reliable enough to support the planned changes?
  • Dependencies: Have teams mapped how decisions, orders and information move across departments and partners?
  • Users: Are the people doing the work involved early, and can their feedback affect design and rollout?
  • Governance: Is there an empowered forum to resolve cross-functional conflicts?
  • Organization: Do roles, skills, incentives and behaviors change in step with systems and processes?
  • Adaptation: Is there a way to learn from implementation and adjust after launch?

Richet’s central lesson is that a large transformation is socio-technical work: systems, processes, governance and people shape one another. Treating it as a technology installation alone leaves the hardest dependencies untouched.

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