Why Financial Services Firms Talk About Transformation But Struggle to Execute It

Most financial services firms know what they want to achieve. 

Leadership teams can describe the future state clearly. There are roadmaps, initiatives, and technology investments designed to modernise the business. 

Where things break down is execution. 

The financial services transformation execution gap shows up when: 

• strategies don’t translate into frontline behaviour 
• teams aren’t equipped to work differently 
• processes remain unclear or inconsistent 
• commercial activity doesn’t change in any meaningful way 

In a market where pressure on margins and performance is increasing, this gap becomes much harder to ignore. 

Most financial services firms know what they want. In the past, strong market conditions could mask poor execution. 

Today, that safety net has gone. 

As competition intensifies and buying decisions become more complex, even small execution issues have a visible commercial impact – longer sales cycles, stalled opportunities, and inconsistent client experience. 

This is why financial services transformation execution is now a critical priority for commercial leaders. Growth depends less on bold plans and more on the ability to deliver consistently across teams, regions, and roles. 

Transformation that stays at leadership level rarely survives contact with customers. 

AI and automation are often positioned as the solution to execution challenges. In reality, they tend to highlight problems that already exist. 

Technology doesn’t create clarity. 
It scales whatever is already in place. 

If sales processes are fragmented, technology amplifies the fragmentation. 
If responsibilities are unclear, automation increases confusion. 
If teams lack enablement, tools go unused or misused. 

This is where many firms unintentionally widen the financial services transformation execution gap – investing in systems before addressing how work gets done. 

For sales and commercial leaders, execution gaps aren’t theoretical. 

They show up as: 

Inconsistent pipeline quality 

Slower deal progression 

Unclear or diluted value propositions 

Friction in the buying experience  

At durhamlane, we often see organisations push harder on activity when the real issue is structural. Without clarity on how growth is meant to happen, more effort doesn’t translate into better outcomes. 

Improving financial services transformation execution means fixing how teams operate, not just what tools they’re given. 

The financial services firms that consistently turn transformation into results tend to share a few characteristics: 

• Clear, repeatable commercial processes 
• Alignment between leadership intent and frontline execution 
• Investment in enablement, not just technology 
• A realistic view of current capability

Rather than attempting large-scale reinvention, they focus on incremental improvements that compound over time. That discipline is what allows transformation to stick. 

Execution, in these organisations, is treated as a capability, not an assumption. 

Transformation will remain a priority across financial services. But performance will increasingly be defined by execution quality, not ambition. 

For commercial leaders, closing the financial services transformation execution gap starts with asking tougher questions:  

How clear are our processes in practice? 

How confident are our teams in executing them? 

Where does friction actually appear in the buying journey? 

Answering those questions honestly is often the difference between transformation that sounds good internally and growth that shows up externally. 

This blog only captures part of the discussion. 

If you want deeper insight into why transformation so often stalls – and what leaders are doing to improve execution – listen to the full webinar.