(But saying it doesn’t mean they know how to do it)
You can always tell when a message is starting to land. Not because it’s declared boldly, but because it begins to slip quietly into the language.
Not loudly, of course, just quietly buried in their latest research.
A recent McKinsey study asked CFOs what really makes transformation succeed. Their conclusion? It isn’t strategy. It isn’t budget. It isn’t governance. It’s belief. Behaviour. Human alignment.
For anyone who’s led or delivered real transformation, this won’t feel like a breakthrough. It will feel like someone finally catching up.
We’ve all seen programmes that look perfect on paper but go nowhere. Not because the logic is wrong, but because no one truly owns it. The engagement isn’t there. The business moves on while the project plods forward, slowly losing traction. Eventually, the silence speaks louder than the reports.
The study points to collaboration, culture, and resistance to change as the real levers of success. And it’s hard to disagree. But it also raises an uncomfortable question. If these firms now understand the importance of belief, behaviour, and mindset, what exactly are they doing about it?
Because this isn’t just about knowing. It’s about being set up to act.
At COGENT, we didn’t add people and culture into the margins. We built our entire delivery model around them. Not as an idea, but as the core mechanism for making change happen.
We work alongside behavioural experts like Naked Leader as part of our core delivery team. Because unlocking belief and commitment isn’t optional. It’s essential. Together, we bring depth, clarity and challenge at exactly the point where most programmes falter. And the wider COGENT team? They’re not career consultants. They’re former CEOs, CFOs, COOs. People who’ve actually led change. Who understand resistance. Who know what belief really looks like when it’s present, and how obvious it becomes when it’s not.
It’s why our clients describe what we do as different. Not because we say something new, but because we behave in a way that makes outcomes unavoidable.
So yes, it’s encouraging to see the big firms finally recognising what many have known for years. But insight without execution is still just theory. And if their model couldn’t make transformation stick when it was built entirely on their terms, a quiet admission doesn’t change much.
Saying the right things is easy. Delivering them is where it counts.