A Missouri View of Digital Transformation

The Cost of a Nail

Organizations skip Phase 0 to save 4–8 weeks and 1–2% of budget.

What they lose:

• Time: 12–36 months of organizational drag—rework, scope resets, shadow systems, exception normalization
• Money: 100–300% of original budget in direct write-offs and indirect costs
• Reputation: Career-limiting events for practitioners; transformation fatigue that poisons the next initiative before it begins

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Every $1 spent on Phase 0 protects $50–$150 in downstream loss.

Every week invested upfront buys back 10–30 weeks on the back end.

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But here’s what the numbers don’t capture: most failures never get called failures.

They present as “partial success”—systems running at 40–60% of intended functionality, quietly bleeding opportunity cost for years, never formally acknowledged as the structural failures they are.

The 80% that “fail to meet objectives” don’t explode dramatically like Lidl or Revlon. They limp along, normalized into the landscape, while the practitioners who raised early concerns absorb the blame.

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OCM manages the consequences of decisions. Phase 0 prevents the wrong decisions from becoming irreversible.

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Organizations absorb failure. Individuals don’t.

Phase 0 is the nail. Skipping it costs years, multiples, and careers.

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