{"id":848968,"date":"2025-05-17T09:12:01","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T14:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/17\/4-keys-to-successful-change-management-from-the-bain-playbook\/"},"modified":"2025-05-17T09:12:01","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T14:12:01","slug":"4-keys-to-successful-change-management-from-the-bain-playbook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/17\/4-keys-to-successful-change-management-from-the-bain-playbook\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Keys To Successful Change Management From The Bain Playbook"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The \u201cplaybook\u201d is Bain\u2019s methodical guide to modernizing an organization\u2019s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. And it played a vital role in Bain\u2019s own ERP journey.<\/p>\n

getty<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

About nine out of 10 ERP implementations fall short, often due to lack of adoption by either employees or business units, according to global consultancy Bain & Company. So, how do experts such as Bain ensure success during their own big-bang implementation of, say, SAP S\/4HANA Public Cloud?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe executed this change management successfully by leveraging our own playbook on ourselves,\u201d Ramesh Razdan<\/a>, Global Chief Technology\/Information Officer, Bain & Company, told SAP. \u201cJust as we have done [with clients] multiple times across the globe, in partnership with SAP.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cplaybook\u201d is Bain\u2019s methodical guide to modernizing an organization\u2019s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. And it played a vital role in Bain\u2019s own ERP journey.<\/p>\n

In an article<\/u><\/a>, Bain explained the process behind the implementation: \u201cJust as we advise our clients, we began with an airtight case for change, [leveraging] the migration as not just a check-the-box IT exercise but an opportunity to simplify our operations and ultimately transform our business.\u201d Bain accelerated its cloud transition with a project plan that combined implementation best practices from SAP with Bain\u2019s own change management and process redesign best practices.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s airtight case, jointly developed by its IT and finance teams, was its need to simplify operations while rapidly growing worldwide.<\/p>\n

Growing globally and customizing cumbersomely<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Bain enjoyed significant growth over the last two decades, expanding into 65 offices across 40 countries and growing its workforce by nearly a factor of five to more than 18,000 employees, while also scaling further via about two dozen acquisitions. To keep pace with all that growth, it continually customized its homegrown ERP platform.<\/p>\n

But that led to silos across offices and org charts, Razdan said. There were also problems scaling and integrating acquisitions, some of which ran on different platforms than Bain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to set up a platform that solves problems of today and sets us up for the future,\u201d Razdan said. \u201cThat was the business case.\u201d<\/p>\n

After months of searching, Bain chose SAP S\/4HANA Cloud Public Edition for its standardized processes, industry best practices, and continual innovation, Razdan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSAP S\/4HANA was the best fit for Bain,\u201d Stephen Mackey, Bain\u2019s EVP of Global Finance, said. \u201cIt future-proofed our technology stack, enabled us to get the data that we needed to make business decisions, and also positioned us to be able to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

The aim was standardized core processes \u2014 kept clean with zero customizations, thanks in part to apps capable of add-ons and upgrades as needed. The next step would be driving adoption to assure successful change management.<\/p>\n

How Bain managed change, Bain\u2019s way<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Bain\u2019s ERP transformation playbook is full of hard-won lessons from the company\u2019s own experience and research, according to Razdan. These include what Bain consultants have learned both from successful and more challenging implementations.<\/p>\n

From the start, Bain was crystal clear about its case for change, according to Razdan. The company prioritized change management, which meant IT partnering with finance; it also meant cultivating a mindset conducive to change.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe owned the change; we identified a group of high performers within our finance and our IT teams. This community of super-users could readily identify and deal with any of the problems that typically arise in an implementation of this size and scale,\u201d Mackey said. \u201cThis was less just changing their technology; it\u2019s changing employee behaviors and setting us up for how we want to grow and change processes going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bain also wanted to stick with industry best practices via SAP standards. And keeping customizations off the platform, unlike Bain\u2019s previous ERP environment, \u201cwould make life easier,\u201d Mackey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdopting a clean core with minimal customizations means that we can absorb any changes that occur in the platform,\u201d Mackey said. \u201cIt also gives us the ability to integrate our future acquisitions in a way that\u2019s effective for Bain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why metrics and transparency were crucial<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cWe actually set up a program to be always measuring the value,\u201d Razdan said. \u201cYou have internal stakeholders, you have external stakeholders, you have partnerships; we kind of built an ecosystem of governance and partnership that enabled us to keep everybody on the same page because transparency and communication is critical to success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gauging progress via transparent key performance indicators was all the more impressive, given that most of this happened during the worldwide, pandemic-driven move to remote work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could assess the implementation, as we went through it, to keep us on track [and] course correct,\u201d Mackey said. \u201cThis enabled us to do the implementation from end-to-end in under three years, which was an incredible achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n

A big-bang implementation also helped, according to Razdan. Bain thoroughly examined its business, as well as the complications of running multiple systems in parallel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a bold decision and, looking back, I\u2019m really proud of it, particularly about the people and the partnership,\u201d Razdan said. \u201cWe would not have done it any other way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust the beginning\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Since going live in July 2023, Bain runs all core financials around the world on the SAP platform. Real-time data enable better, faster decision making, while automated core processes have reduced manual work, which helps Bain execute seamless updates as well as onboard acquisitions more efficiently.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have set up a great foundation with SAP in terms of how we apply our own playbook,\u201d Razdan said. \u201cI think this just the beginning for our partnership; I\u2019m really excited for the next phase.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story also appears on the <\/em>SAP News Center<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Derek Klobucher<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The \u201cplaybook\u201d is Bain\u2019s methodical guide to modernizing an organization\u2019s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. And it played a vital role in Bain\u2019s own ERP journey. getty About nine out of 10 ERP implementations fall short, often due to lack of adoption by either employees or business units, according to global consultancy Bain & Company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":848969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2509,4380],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-848968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-change","8":"category-successful"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}