BCG brings organisational change expert Kristy Ellmer to Australia for AI client roadshow
As AI rapidly reshapes industries, jobs and business models, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is bringing one of the firm’s leading organisational transformation experts – Kristy Ellmer – to Australia to help senior executives navigate complex AI-driven change.
While AI continues to dominate boardroom agendas, evidence increasingly shows that technology alone will not determine whether organisations realise its full potential. The greatest value from AI comes not from the technology itself, but from redesigning workflows, rethinking business processes, building new capabilities and enabling employees to work in fundamentally different ways.
Kristy Ellmer, a Managing Director and Partner from the Boston office and co-author ‘How Change Really Works’, will meet with senior business leaders across Australia to discuss how organisations can successfully navigate transformation in an era of unprecedented technological disruption.
“Every executive today is asking how AI will transform their organisation, but the more important question is whether their organisation is ready to transform,” said Ellmer.
“Technology can create extraordinary opportunities, but organisations only capture value when people change how they work. That requires leaders to rethink processes, redesign operating models, develop new skills and bring employees on the journey.”
Global research from Boston Consulting Group shows that while the pace of AI roll-outs is increasing, many transformation efforts continue to fall short. A key reason for the ‘return on investment gap’ lies in the fact that leaders focus heavily on implementing new technologies while underestimating the behavioural and organisational changes required to make them successful.
“AI is accelerating change across every industry,” said Ellmer. “For many organisations, the challenge is no longer deciding whether to adopt the technology. It’s ensuring their people, processes and culture evolve alongside it.”
How Change Really Works
Drawing on one of the largest behavioural science research programs ever undertaken within Boston Consulting Group, Ellmer’s work demonstrates that successful transformation depends as much on human behaviour as it does on strategy.
The research underpinning the book draws on insights from thousands of executives and employees worldwide, examining how people think, feel and behave during periods of change, and why so many transformation efforts fail to deliver lasting results. The findings show that organisations are more likely to succeed when leaders deliberately create the conditions that foster new behaviours, build momentum and help employees navigate uncertainty.
The findings are particularly relevant to AI transformation, which often involves a major enterprise-wide overhaul of how work is designed, behaviours are shaped and employees are supported in adopting new ways of operating.
“Leaders are increasingly being challenged to manage shifting employee expectations, changing job roles, new ways of working and the need for continuous adaptation,” said Ellmer.
During her visit across key BCG clients in Australia, Ellmer will share insights from this research, exploring how leaders can translate strategy into action, sustain momentum through periods of uncertainty and build organisations that can continuously adapt and thrive in an increasingly dynamic environment.
“The organisations that succeed in the AI era will be those that can continuously adapt, learn and evolve. That means putting as much focus on people and organisational change as on the technology itself.”
