Leading Transformation … using the “REINVENT” framework to drive transformational change … to create the future business, while delivering today

February 26, 2026

Transformation is one of the most overused and least understood words in business. Annual reports promise it. Strategy decks announce it. Yet too often what is described as transformation amounts to incremental efficiency, digital overlays, or selective restructuring.

Genuine business transformation is rarer and far more demanding. It is the deliberate reallocation of capital, talent, capability, identity and leadership attention to build a new engine of value creation — while the existing engine continues to operate.

Across industries and geographies, Adobe to Alibaba, Danone to DBS, Microsoft to Netflix, enduring reinvention follows a recognisable pattern. It is not improvisation. It is disciplined orchestration.

That orchestration can be understood through eight integrated leadership disciplines: “REINVENT”.

R — Recognise value migration
E — Examine and rewrite strategic logic
I — Invest with conviction
N — Navigate explore vs. exploit tension
V — Validate and scale new value engines
E — Evolve culture and capability
N — Nurture leadership evolution
T — Transform the core

Transformation is not innovation at the edges. It is structural renewal at the centre. “REINVENT” provides a framework for making that renewal deliberate.

R — Recognise the value shifts

Value does not usually disappear; it moves.

Profit pools migrate from products to platforms, from ownership to access, from hardware to software, from fossil fuels to electrification, from physical intermediation to digital ecosystems. The leaders who detect these migrations early preserve strategic freedom. Those who delay are forced into reactive restructuring.

At Microsoft, Satya Nadella recognised that enterprise value was moving from perpetual software licences and desktop dominance towards cloud computing and subscription platforms. Rather than defend Windows as the company’s gravitational centre, he repositioned Azure and Office 365 as the new growth engines.
Reed Hastings at Netflix anticipated broadband penetration and consumer impatience with physical media. He cannibalised the profitable DVD-by-mail model to accelerate streaming. Later, recognising that streaming would commoditise, he invested heavily in original content — shifting from distributor to intellectual property owner.
Fujifilm saw the structural collapse of photographic film long before its full impact. Rather than decline with the category, leadership redeployed chemical and materials science expertise into healthcare, cosmetics and advanced materials.

Recognising value migration demands intellectual honesty. Boards must ask: if we were entering this industry today, would we design the same business model? Where are future profit pools forming — and are we positioned to capture them?

Perception is the first discipline of reinvention.

E — Evaluate your strategic logic

Recognition without redefinition is insufficient.

Strategic logic determines how a company creates and captures value — its revenue model, ecosystem role, cost structure and capital profile. When value migrates, legacy logic becomes constraint.

Schneider Electric rewrote its logic from a manufacturer of electrical components to a provider of digital energy management and automation platforms. Software, analytics and services now sit at the heart of its value proposition.
Ping An evolved from a traditional insurer into a technology-enabled financial ecosystem. Leadership invested heavily in AI, data platforms and fintech ventures, repositioning the group as a digital infrastructure provider across healthcare, banking and insurance.
Maersk reframed itself from a shipping line to an integrated logistics provider. By building end-to-end supply chain capabilities and digital platforms, it shifted from asset-based transport margins to service-oriented orchestration.

Rewriting strategic logic often requires divestment. Siemens simplified its industrial portfolio through spin-offs and sharper focus on digital industries and smart infrastructure, improving coherence and capital discipline.

Such moves challenge identity. They demand that boards and executives let go of assets that once defined the company. Strategy is ultimately a choice about what not to be.

I — Investment as strategic choices

Transformation becomes credible when capital moves.

Many firms declare ambition but continue allocating the majority of resources to legacy units. Budgets reveal belief. If capital remains anchored in the past, reinvention is rhetorical.

BYD redirected capital towards electric vehicles and battery technology well before global EV adoption accelerated. Heavy investment in battery innovation positioned the company as both manufacturer and technology supplier.
Danone undertook portfolio refocusing towards health and nutrition categories, divesting commoditised assets and reallocating capital towards higher-growth segments aligned with long-term consumer trends.
Microsoft reinforced its cloud pivot through sustained investment in data centres, AI research and strategic acquisitions.

Capital allocation also includes exit decisions. Fujifilm’s retreat from declining film markets freed resources for healthcare and materials science. Siemens’ portfolio simplification clarified investor narratives and strengthened strategic focus.

Conviction requires tolerance for short-term volatility. Leaders must articulate clearly why capital is moving and how long-term value will be created.

Without decisive investment, transformation remains aspiration.

N — Navigate “exploit vs explore” dynamically

Transformation is not sequential. The legacy engine must perform even as the new engine is built.

Exploitation demands operational discipline, efficiency and predictability. Exploration requires experimentation, risk tolerance and different metrics. Attempting to manage both identically produces frustration.

Netflix managed declining DVD revenues while scaling streaming. Microsoft balanced enterprise licence stability with aggressive cloud expansion.
John Deere continues to sell high-quality equipment while embedding precision agriculture capabilities through data analytics, GPS and AI — creating subscription-based service layers atop traditional product sales.
Ping An operates regulated insurance and banking units while incubating fintech platforms with distinct governance structures.

The objective is not balance but a dynamic, actively managed, tension. Exploration must be protected without becoming indulgent. Exploitation must remain disciplined without suffocating innovation.

Boards should ask whether governance, metrics and incentives genuinely differentiate core optimisation from future exploration.

V — Validate and scale new value engines

Innovation becomes transformation only when it reaches material scale.

Many organisations pilot promising initiatives yet fail to industrialise them. Building a new engine requires integration across sales, operations, technology and supply chain.

Schneider Electric scaled digital energy platforms globally, embedding software into hardware offerings and creating recurring revenue streams.
Maersk invested heavily in logistics integration, validating its end-to-end model through customer adoption and then scaling digital supply chain platforms.
John Deere turned precision agriculture into a meaningful contributor to revenue by integrating data analytics into equipment ecosystems.

Validation demands rigorous assessment of customer demand, scalability and economics. Scaling requires organisational alignment and capability reinforcement.

Leaders must decide when to double down and when to terminate experiments. Indecision drains capital and morale.

Transformation is measured not by the number of initiatives launched, but by the proportion of revenue generated by new engines.

E — Evolve culture and capabilities

Strategy without cultural alignment stalls.

Transformation disrupts identity and challenges established expertise. Without deliberate cultural evolution, organisations resist the very changes required for survival.

At Microsoft, Nadella introduced a growth mindset, encouraging collaboration and continuous learning over internal competition. Cultural change supported technical reinvention.
At Danone, leadership aligned brand portfolios around health and sustainability narratives, embedding purpose into strategic decision-making.
Ping An invested not only in technology but in digital talent, reshaping recruitment and incentive systems to support platform thinking.

Capability reinvention often requires significant retraining and external hiring. Data scientists, software engineers and AI specialists become core rather than peripheral.

Culture is not decorative. It determines whether new strategies take root.

Boards should treat cultural indicators with the same seriousness as financial metrics.

N — Nurture leadership transformation

Organisations rarely evolve faster than their leaders.

Reinvention requires executives to abandon past success formulas. The cognitive models that built yesterday’s engine may obstruct tomorrow’s.

Reed Hastings evolved from logistics entrepreneur to media studio leader. Satya Nadella shifted Microsoft’s tone from combative dominance to empathetic collaboration.
Leaders at Fujifilm redefined corporate identity from film producer to diversified materials science and healthcare innovator.
At Maersk, executives moved from asset-heavy shipping mentality to integrated service orchestration.

Leadership evolution demands humility, curiosity and resilience. Transformation is multi-year, often contested, and sometimes unpopular.

Boards must also evolve — expanding expertise in digital ecosystems, sustainability and technology strategy to provide informed oversight.

Personal reinvention is central to corporate reinvention.

T — Transform the Core

The final discipline is the anchor.

Transformation is not digital experimentation at the margins. It is structural change at the centre — in revenue composition, capital allocation, capability systems and valuation logic.

When Microsoft migrated to cloud, its revenue model and investor narrative shifted. When Netflix invested in original content, its identity changed from distributor to creator.
When BYD scaled electric vehicles, it reshaped competitive dynamics.
When Schneider Electric embedded digital platforms, it altered its economic profile.

This is transformation: the deliberate construction of a new engine of value while the old engine still runs.

Legacy businesses must be managed responsibly even as they decline in strategic centrality. Emerging engines must achieve scale before legacy cash flows diminish.

Boards and CEOs should monitor migration trajectory — how rapidly revenue, capital and talent are shifting towards the future engine.

Bringing it together as REINVENT

The REINVENT disciplines are interdependent.

Recognising value migration without rewriting strategy creates awareness without action. Rewriting strategy without capital reallocation creates aspiration without substance. Investing without cultural evolution creates resistance. Exploration without scaling produces fragmentation.

When integrated, REINVENT becomes a repeatable capability.

Across cases, the pattern is clear:

Transformation is not innovation at the edges.
It is the deliberate reallocation of capital, talent, identity and attention to build a new engine of value creation — while the old one continues to operate.

In a world shaped by technological acceleration, geopolitical instability and environmental constraint, reinvention cannot be episodic. It must be institutionalised.

The leaders who endure are those who make reinvention a discipline — who repeatedly recognise value shifts, rewrite strategic logic, invest decisively, manage tension productively, scale new engines, evolve culture, nurture leadership growth and transform the core.

Transformation is not a programme.

It is a capability.

And those who master REINVENT do not merely respond to disruption.

They define the next curve of value creation.

Inspiring transformations

Business transformation can take many forms.

Leapfrogging legacy infrastructure, ecosystem building in volatile environments, scaling under capital constraints. Cannibalising legacy economics, re-architecting revenue logic, shifting valuation multiples. Letting go of identity-defining assets, managing activist pressure, rebuilding coherence after conglomerate complexity. Treating technology as strategy, capability reinvention at scale, talent model overhaul. IP as strategic anchor, direct-to-consumer economics. Lifetime customer economics, data monetisation, organisational shift from manufacturing to solutions. Moral conviction as strategic asset, long-term capital reallocation, regulatory foresight.

What is common, is that almost every business needs to reinvent itself in a world a dramatic, disruptive change.

Adobe — Shifted from perpetual software licences to a SaaS subscription model, creating recurring revenue, predictable cash flow, and higher valuation multiples. Leadership embraced cannibalisation, redesigned revenue logic, and communicated the long-term growth narrative to investors, fundamentally re-architecting the company’s core economics.
Amazon — Pivoted from retail to cloud infrastructure via AWS while orchestrating a broader ecosystem of services. Bezos balanced operational excellence in retail with autonomous exploration, capturing new profit pools, reshaping valuation, and institutionalising platform thinking across logistics, AI, and marketplace services.
Spotify — Transitioned from music streaming to a creator-centric platform monetising advertising and subscriptions. Leadership encouraged experimentation, expanded data analytics, and monetised content directly while nurturing a dual-focus strategy balancing user growth and creator engagement, establishing a scalable, differentiated ecosystem.
Shopify — Evolved from a website builder to global commerce infrastructure, providing payments, logistics, and marketplace integration. Leadership re-architected revenue capture, expanded ecosystem value, and prioritised platform extensibility, turning merchant support into a scalable and high-margin business engine.
Tencent — Transformed from a gaming company to a super-app ecosystem integrating social, payments, entertainment, and commerce. Leadership executed platform orchestration, monetisation innovation, and ecosystem expansion, leveraging network effects while balancing regulatory scrutiny and competitive positioning.
IBM — Divested hardware businesses to fund hybrid cloud and consulting growth. Rometty reallocated capital, redefined strategic focus, and overhauled capabilities while navigating client expectations and maintaining profitability.
Siemens — Executed industrial portfolio simplification and spin-offs, concentrating on digital industries and infrastructure. Leadership emphasised coherent growth, managed complexity, and fostered alignment across business units.
Hitachi — Restructured toward digital infrastructure, prioritising technology platforms and services over legacy hardware. Leadership combined capital discipline with capability redeployment.
Thyssenkrupp — Radical portfolio reshaping through divestments and operational refocus, reclaiming strategic clarity and responding to activist investor pressure.
Danone — Refocused on health and nutrition, divesting commoditised units, strengthening portfolio coherence, and aligning brand strategy with long-term consumer trends.
Microsoft — Transitioned from Windows-centric to cloud-native platforms like Azure. Nadella integrated AI, rebuilt developer ecosystems, and embedded a subscription-based operating model.
Ping An — Evolved from insurance to a tech-enabled financial ecosystem. Leadership invested in data platforms, AI underwriting, and fintech integration to create cross-business synergies.
JPMorgan Chase — Modernised as a technology-driven bank with AI, digital payments, and operational automation. Leadership repositioned the bank from balance-sheet-centric to platform-oriented.
DBS Bank — Executed “digital to the core” transformation, redesigning customer journeys, organisational structures, and talent models.
Schneider Electric — Shifted from electrical equipment to digital energy management platforms, embedding AI analytics and services to increase recurring revenue and operational insight.
Rolls-Royce — Moved from selling engines to “power by the hour” services, monetising uptime and lifecycle performance. Leadership recalibrated contracts and operations for recurring revenue.
Caterpillar — Integrated machinery with data-driven lifecycle services. Leadership embraced predictive maintenance and IoT, increasing customer stickiness and margin.
John Deere — Developed precision agriculture platforms combining equipment, data, and analytics. Leadership invested in ecosystems and partnerships for scalable solutions.
Haier — Evolved appliances into a microenterprise ecosystem, enabling localised, customer-driven innovation. Leadership decentralised decision-making, aligning incentives with solutions revenue.
Ørsted — Transitioned from fossil-fuel utility to global offshore wind leader. Leadership divested legacy assets, committed to ESG strategy, and leveraged long-term regulatory trends.
Neste — Pivoted from oil refining to renewable fuels. Leadership invested in clean technologies, aligning capital with sustainability growth.
Unilever — Transformed its brand portfolio toward purpose-driven offerings, embedding ESG metrics in product strategy.
Patagonia — Integrated activism and sustainability into business model, influencing product design, marketing, and corporate governance.
Reliance Industries — Moved from petrochemicals to a digital and retail ecosystem via Jio and commerce integration. Leadership combined scale, ambition, and risk tolerance to leapfrog legacy infrastructure.
MercadoLibre — Evolved marketplace into fintech ecosystem with payments, credit, and logistics. Leadership executed integrated platform thinking under volatile economic conditions.
Safaricom — Created mobile money platform M-Pesa, combining telecom services with financial inclusion. Leadership scaled infrastructure under capital constraints while capturing new revenue streams.
Embraer — Transformed regional jets into global aerospace partnerships and service ecosystems. Leadership invested in collaborative innovation and new market access.
Lamborghini — Revitalised heritage brand while expanding into SUVs. Leadership balanced exclusivity, volume growth, and design identity.
Burberry — Pioneered digital luxury through e-commerce, social media, and digital marketing while maintaining brand cachet.
LVMH — Orchestrated portfolio brands, scaling heritage, creativity, and global reach. Leadership maximised synergy without diluting individual brand identity.
Ferrari — Maintains scarcity-driven pricing while expanding product line, enhancing valuation through exclusivity and brand management
Netflix — Transitioned from distribution to original content creation. Hastings cannibalised legacy streaming model to secure intellectual property and subscription growth.
Disney — Leveraged IP portfolio for streaming pivot, integrating content, platform, and direct-to-consumer strategy under CEO Bob Chapek.
The New York Times — Shifted from print to digital subscription model. Leadership focused on product, data, and reader engagement to replace declining ad revenue.

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