2020 brainfood discontinuous transformation 883x432 1

Discontinuous transformation

15 June 2020

The article at a glance

Leisurely pace of change not quick enough for many businesses in COVID-19 era. “Discontinuous” transformation rather than a leisurely pace of change …

Leisurely pace of change not quick enough for many businesses in COVID-19 era.

Photo of the City of London at sunset.

“Discontinuous” transformation rather than a leisurely pace of change will be needed at many businesses in the COVID-19 (coronavirus) era, Dr Kishore Sengupta of Cambridge Judge Business School says in a Financial Times article published today (Monday 15 June).

Dr Kishore Sengupta
Dr Kishore Sengupta

Such transformation goes beyond speed of change “but also the direction of travel, and not through mere incremental moves,” says the article, which accompanies the FT’s global ranking of Master of Finance (MFin) programmes.

Finance plays a very important role in this type of transformation, because traditional linear return-on-investment benchmarks may need re-evaluation, says Kishore, Reader in Operations Management at Cambridge Judge.

His research on discontinuous transformation has yielded four key insights: transformation can occur without large capital expenditures; timing on financial returns needs to be flexible; savings are crucial at a time of major change; and liquidity can be boosted by not prematurely ending existing revenue streams.