The CTO Playbook 71: The Real Reason Digital Transformations Fail — It’s Not Technology or People
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Nov 25, 2025 Michael Louis Schank, an author and consultant specializing in digital transformation, shares insights from his extensive background at major firms like Accenture and Bank of America. He reveals that the real bottlenecks in transformations are not technology or people, but rather the complexity that breeds chaos. Michael emphasizes the importance of mapping business processes and assigning ownership to clarify change and prevent drift. He discusses bridging the communication gap between tech and business, and how simple process inventories can enable better outcomes and innovation.
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Epiphany From Building A Bank Capability Model
- Michael Louis Schank discovered the power of mapping everything when creating a three-level business capability model at a bank.
- That early project gave him an epiphany about alignment and sparked his focus on business architecture.
From Chaos To Green: Mortgage Project Turnaround
- At a mortgage client Schank mapped every process and attached owners, then fed that structure to the requirements team.
- The result moved the program from red to green in weeks because scope and sign-offs became clear.
Complexity, Not People Or Tech, Is The Root Problem
- The root cause of transformation failure is complexity-driven chaos rather than people or tech.
- Fixes require tangible alignment plus systems thinking to map components and their relationships.
