Reflections on OIC’s Third Anniversary

Introduction

St. Patrick’s Day 2026 is OIC’s Third Anniversary -- what an interesting, fun, and somewhat unpredictable journey so far!

As CEO of OIC, I wanted to share some reflections on the past three years, and we especially want to thank our clients, large and small, for engaging us in their most challenging transformation journeys. These leaders have boldly stepped up in some of the toughest economic times in recent memory to continue to push large-scale transformation for their companies – driving high-value and lasting change. Their courage and commitment are the reason OIC exists.

What We Expected

We founded OIC three years ago to help companies large and small drive “Operational Velocity.” When we use the term “Operational Velocity” we mean the state a company has achieved that enables them to grow, scale, operate, and pivot seamlessly. They have strategic alignment internally, supported by the leadership, culture, processes, methodologies, and toolsets that enable them to quickly adjust to changing customer, partner, and market dynamics.

Here are the significant things that turned out as we expected:

1. Transformation leadership and courage. There is a distinct group of senior leaders who know they need to transform their operations, and either don’t know how to do it, or are too randomized in the day-to-day running of the business to tackle large scale transformation. Courageous leaders get help when they know they need a catalyst to finally accelerate progress.
2. Organizational structure evolved, not designed. Most transformation efforts include some form of organizational design work, and very often it helps to have objective advice. A neutral third party - one without internal politics or competing interests - can often provide the clarity needed to make difficult structural decisions.
3. Common reasons for failure. Large-scale transformations are notoriously difficult, and failure rates remain high. In our experience, these are the three main reasons transformations fail:
   1. There aren’t a lot of leaders who have successfully driven complex transformation efforts.
   2. Usually, the planning is poor or incomplete.
   3. Teams are not persistent when things get challenging.
4. Large enterprise transformation. Transformation efforts are especially challenging for large enterprises, due to technical, process, and organizational design debt. They are also usually cross-functional in nature with many teams at the table, which adds to the complexity and requires significant orchestration.
5. Poor or theoretical consulting outcomes. Many leaders have had bad interactions with consultants, spending excessive time and money, yet not getting actionable recommendations. We knew from the beginning that we would have to clearly show how our approach to rapid and actionable results is very different from other strategy consulting companies. OIC was designed to be different - our focus has always been practical, actionable outcomes delivered quickly, not lengthy slide decks filled with ideas that never translate into results.
6. Executive sponsorship and operational rigor. We know that teams who have executive support, who are clear about their goals and vision for change, plan well, and persist through the challenging times are rewarded. They have a well-designed organization, more efficient processes and tools, clearer KPIs, appropriate rewards, and happier employees.
7. The pace of “AI adoption.” Adoption may not be quite the right word, as it connotes an organized process. Companies that jumped to roll out AI quickly, yet without safety and ethical guardrails, have incurredsignificant risk and inefficiency. Without proper planning and governance, these companies quickly find themselves less productive, resilient, accurate, and reliable than they were before.
8. The depth of layoffs. What surprised and disappointed us this year was the number of companies who quickly shifted away from their stated core principles in the face of AI-driven market changes to drive a greater bottom line. Companies have prematurely done significant layoffs on the promise of AI efficiencies, yet are getting less value from their AI initiatives than they expected and are struggling with how to address this. Many are now discovering that the loss of institutional knowledge has created new operational challenges, and the expected gains from AI have not fully materialized.
9. The political climate and economic impact. The deep cuts in essential government departments have challenged the operations of our clients who do business with the Federal government. CISO’s are also telling us they see very real concerns due to increased attack vectors, given significant cuts in agencies responsible for U.S cybersecurity.
10. The very poor job market. The current hiring environment is the worst we have seen in many years. Whether due to the promise of AI enabling reduced headcount, premature layoffs, or fiscal conservatism in an unstable market, a lot of talented people are out of work, through no fault of their own. At the same time, companies are struggling to navigate AI-driven recruiting tools that often fail to match great candidates with the right opportunities.
11. Maintain your company’s core values and your own personal principles and ethics.
12. Core leadership principles are more essential than ever.
13. Find an appropriate level of governance over AI initiatives that matches your culture, and balances your risk tolerance with enabling innovation and operational velocity.
14. In concert with your “AI strategy,” acknowledge the need to retool your strategy and decision-making processes to accelerate your ability to react to market changes.
15. As your company strategy and the markets shift unpredictably, over-communicate to employees about the realities of what the coming months might bring. Employees have respect and greater loyalty to leaders who are honest about what they know, and especially what they don’t.

What We Didn’t Expect

In any entrepreneurial endeavor you have to expect the unexpected. In my experience with multiple start-ups, the best run and fastest growing have operational rigor, and also the ability to quickly pivot as the market and clients demand.

Over the past three years, here are some of the significant things that we didn’t expect:

So, in the past three years we knew there would be surprises – but we expected them in the areas of moderately shifting market dynamics, and portfolio changes to meet clients’ emerging needs. The shifts we have seen are significant and the outcomes are still unwritten. If you believe the hype-driven articles, software development will no longer be needed and entire industries, SaaS as an example, will disappear. History tells us these kinds of predictions rarely come true. What does happen is reinvention.

Summary

So how do we advise our clients in this dynamic and fast-changing environment? Here are the most foundational pieces of advice we provide to our clients who are trying to drive complex transformation in an incredibly difficult business climate:

We spend a lot of time helping our clients think through the possibilities for the future.

It’s hard to predict where Year Four will take OIC and our clients. However, one thing is certain: the future will be amazing for those who continue to build on solid foundations – nothing has changed in that regard, it just needs to be accelerated.

We truly appreciate our clients’ willingness to take the journey together -- the leadership they have shown is nothing short of remarkable, and we expect nothing less in the coming year.

Best wishes for a phenomenal year to our current and future clients! Please reach out if there is anything we can do to help accelerate your team’s success! https://oicadvisors.com/contact