MCLI Crayon Edition: Transformation — WTF Does That Mean?

MCLI Crayon Edition: Transformation — WTF Does That Mean?

By Gene Fliman, Practice Director at MCLI

Transformation is just another word for strategy. And like strategy, it’s only as strong as its numbers.

When executives throw “transformation” around without quantifiable benefits, it becomes junk jargon — big, emotional, vision-stuffed promises with no math behind them. That’s not leadership. That’s marketing.

Look at California’s $2.2 billion Ivanpah Solar Power Facility. It was sold as a beacon of renewable transformation: towers of mirrors in the desert, a vision of limitless clean energy. The story was inspiring. The math was rotten. Eleven years later, two of the three units are shutting down. The plant never met capacity, couldn’t compete with cheaper photovoltaics, and was kept alive with sweetheart contracts that are now expiring. Result: billions burned, investors gone, communities disappointed.

You don’t lose billions unless you failed to quantify upside — negligence — or you knew the upside was thin and didn’t disclose it — ignorance. Either way, it’s not strategy.

What Transformation Actually Is

Real transformation is a strategic roadmap that relies on IT partnership to deliver measurable outcomes. And that roadmap only works if the pain is quantified:

• If the problem is cheaper to keep than to fix — keep it. That analysis alone is worth its weight in gold.

• If the cost to transform shows realistic, realizable value, then plan it like a real program: with scenarios, metrics, and triggers.

At MCLI, we call it Commander OS thinking. Nothing ever goes perfectly to plan — so you don’t wait to “debate” when the unexpected happens. You’ve already defined your scenarios, set the triggers, and pre-decided what action to take when they fire. The program succeeds regardless of which scenario plays out, because the decisions were built into the business case from the start.

Why Stakeholders Freak Out

Sponsors and VPs roll their eyes when they hear “transformation” because too often it means scope creep, no metrics, and endless PowerPoints. The real way to sell a transformation is to turn it into deliverables they can touch and metrics they can trust.

That’s the difference between:

“We’re transforming the call center.” (scary, vague, expensive)

vs.

“We’re cutting average wait times by 35% by upgrading IVR, rolling out chatbots, and retraining 200 reps by Q3.” (measurable, finite, real)

The Point

Transformation isn’t magic. It’s not a North Star you hang in a CEO deck. It’s not a desert tower of mirrors burning birds while contracts bleed money.

It’s strategy — quantified, planned, measured, and protected from politics by scenarios and triggers. Get that right, and “transformation” stops being a buzzword and starts being a result.

If your stakeholders roll their eyes at the word ‘transformation,’ let’s break it into deliverables they can touch, measure, and thank you for.

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• Project Cost & Federal Loan
  U.S. Department of Energy Loan Programs Office. (2014). Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System. DOE Fact Sheet — Notes $2.2B build cost and $1.6B federal loan guarantee.

• Performance & Inefficiency
  Davenport, C. (2016). Ivanpah, the Complex Solar Plant, Is Struggling to Live Up to Its Promise. The New York Times. Link — Early struggles meeting energy goals.

• Partial Shutdown / Closures
  Waldman, S. (2025). Older Ivanpah Solar Plant in California Will Close Units as Tech Shifts. Engineering News-Record. Link — Two of three units shutting down by 2026 due to expiring contracts and competition.

• Competition from Photovoltaics
  Associated Press. (2025). Ivanpah Solar Plant to Close Two Units as Cheaper Tech Prevails. AP News — Notes PV competition and economics as drivers of closure.

• Termination of PG&E Contract
  NRG Energy. (2025). Ivanpah PPA Buyout Update. NRG Corporate Release — PG&E agreement terminated.

• Public Criticism of “Vision vs. Reality”
  New York Post. (2025). California’s Ivanpah Solar Facility Blasted as a Disaster. NY Post — Critiques on overselling transformation and failing to deliver.