In our December 2021 report, Performance and Innovation Are the Rewards of Digital Transformation, we explored three questions that we hear a lot from clients. How are companies in my sector doing? Is there any proof that transformations deliver real results? And where are leaders focusing their transformation programs?

Our research into digital transformation success rates, goals, and priorities at more than 860 companies provided answers. (See "About Our Research.") In the sector- and industry-specific slideshows below, we have broken those answers down to the industry level.

Each slideshow provides the following:

• Rates of Success. Overall, only about a third of transformations meet or exceed their target value and achieve sustainable change: these are the companies in the win zone. Worry-zone companies create some value but do not meet their targets and produce only limited long-term change. Companies in the woe zone create limited value and produce no sustainable change. See how each industry fares—and see how companies perform on the six success factors that our 2020 report, Flipping the Odds of Digital Transformation Success, identified as the keys to making transformations work.
• Topics of Focus. The key areas of focus for digital transformation vary widely by industry and by company, both within and among four strategic objectives: improving customer experience and go-to-market, innovation and growth in the core and beyond, improving performance in the operational value chain, and performance improvement in support functions.
• Topics for the Future. Where do companies in each industry intend to invest for the digital future? Our data shows how companies are prioritizing their digital initiatives.
• Emphasis on Critical Human and Technology Enablers. Which human and technology enablers do companies see as most important to their future?
• Role of Environmental, Social, and Governmental (ESG) Issues. More than 60% of companies list ESG factors as a primary focus or a key criterion for selecting and prioritizing digital initiatives. Which industries are most active, and where are companies putting the emphasis among the E, S, and G?

We hope that you find this data helpful in assessing your own digital transformation efforts in the relevant industry or sector context.

About Our Research

BCG’s research into digital transformation success includes empirical analysis and qualitative insights. We analyzed 30 successful digital transformations from our casework and surveyed 860 senior executives (VPs and CxOs) who acted as their organization’s primary digital transformation decision maker over the past five years. (See the exhibit.) We augmented this research with expert interviews of BCG digital leaders and selected clients and with a literature review of leading publications and academic research. We sought four principal outcomes:

• Identify key trends in digital transformation after a year of COVID-19-forced digitization.
• Identify priority digital transformation investment areas across digital and sustainability initiatives, by sector.
• Establish a set of critical behaviors and traits that are necessary to sustain the effect of successful digital transformations.
• Develop a playbook detailing how to succeed in each of these critical factors.

The slideshows included here focus on the first two areas.

Coming Soon

Deep Dives into the following industries:

• Financial Institutions
• Insurance
• Industrial Goods
• Energy

The authors would like to thank Matteo Magagnoli, Jun Yokoyama, Priyanka Birla, Sayan Majumdar, Sneha Bahety, Mihirkul Vikram for their invaluable contributions to the research and analysis for this article.