In recent years, I’ve noticed a worrying, reckless and high-risk trend among business leaders – moving forwards quickly without direction when leading organisational and technological change. I liken it to speeding mindlessly in a car with no destination in mind. You wouldn’t do that would you? Digital transformation shouldn’t be any different.

I have increasingly found that the main mantra during the last decade, in terms of business demands on IT and operations, has been for teams to increase speed to market with ever more agility. CTOs have come under increasing pressure from the board and shareholders to reduce cost (increasing profitability) by replacing legacy IT with new digital and Cloud-based technology. Meanwhile, the CMOs wanted new products delivered into the market faster as they witnessed, endured and responded to disruption from more nimble competitors.

Large enterprises have strived to be more like start-ups. They have tried to match their...