Skarbek’s Ruth Corcoran-Henry on the real drivers of transformation success

After obtaining a master’s degree in chemistry, Ruth Corcoran-Henry spent her early career in formulation development, working on new healthcare products and navigating the realities of R&D. But over time, her focus began to shift beyond R&D and into the broader system around them – leading to a new career helping companies to make change stick with international consulting firm Skarbek.

She recalls, “I became increasingly interested in how different functions and teams come together to deliver outcomes; where progress accelerates, where it stalls, and why. This perspective naturally led me into project and program management, where I could step back from being one cog in a very complex machine and start to understand how the whole machine operates. More importantly, it gave me the opportunity to help it work better. More efficiently, more collaboratively, and with clearer intent.”

Moving into professional services therefore felt like “a logical evolution” rather than “a departure from science.” Advisory work allows Corcoran-Henry to apply the same analytical rigour and continuous improvement mindset, but at an organisational level, helping clients make sense of complexity and align moving parts to drive delivery. That forms a strong foundation for the advisory work she went on to do with Skarbek, supporting clients through complex change and transformation.

Joining Skarbek in 2012, Corcoran-Henry positioned herself to see first-hand how the firm’s speciality – strategy execution – could help clients to adapt to a rapidly changing world in precisely that way.

“With the level of sustained volatility organisations are facing today, getting things right first time is increasingly more important for survival,” she explains. “Over the years, we’ve really evolved our offering to meet that reality. One of the biggest shifts has been investing in a much more robust suite of diagnostics. Tools that are designed to give clients a picture on what matters most – the priorities that will move the dial, not the noise that surrounds them.”

“Ultimately, my job is to help clients turn their strategic objectives into measurable results,” she goes on. “That can look different depending on the challenge. We’ve supported R&D teams by providing technical leadership across innovation pipelines, run health-checks to diagnose what’s getting in the way of progress and delivered targeted interventions. I’ve led onboarding for new senior leaders, established and led PMOs and managed complex change initiatives from end-to-end.” 

Amid uncertainty, companies must be built to flex

Looking ahead, these shifts have prepared Corcoran-Henry and Skarbek well to help companies contend with a raft of changes in what is already shaping up to be a chaotic 2026. She admits that the “biggest hurdle” to organisational success is still “this persistent uncertainty we’ve all been navigating”. As a result, companies really need to make sure their operating models are built to function and flex in this kind of environment – a focus that has become central to Skarbek’s recent work with clients. 

“Sticking a plaster over the cracks in your organisation won’t work – you have to understand the root causes holding major projects back and look at the organisation holistically if you want to be genuinely future-ready.”

According to her, even as scepticism around the technology rises, AI “has to be part of the conversation” in helping to build future-ready operations.

AI’s challenges lie less in the technology, an enabler of greater organisational efficiency, and more in firms failing to recognise the importance of “the human aspect” of their use. To that end, she argues that clear communication, involvement from across the organisation will be critical to “bring people along with change” – as ultimately, the companies that can balance AI-driven speed with human-centred transformation “are the ones that will thrive.”

The Skarbek expert adds, “Change programmes keep getting bigger and more complex, but the people expected to deliver them are stretched and the skills required aren’t always the ones that teams naturally develop through day-to-day work. Leaders need to be cognisant of that gap and understand that those capabilities don’t appear overnight – they need to be built, supported and practised.”

Communication must not miss the mark

Of course, the constant churn of transforming a business comes with a cost. The last decade has been a continued cycle of organisations adopting new technology or practices, only for another to come along – and amid this, ‘change fatigue’ has become a real issue for leaders and their people alike. But as leaders face a stream of new challenges which they need to adapt to, they will need to also address how they minimise this kind of negative impact.

According to Corcoran-Henry, the issue “isn’t necessarily the change itself”, but rather “the way it has been delivered”. Returning to the need for a clear narrative or purpose, she explains that without taking that kind of care, leaders can leave their people without a solid understanding of why things are shifting, or “how it connects to their work and this can create resistance long before the real change even begins.”

“Leaders sometimes assume that rolling something out means it will then automatically get embedded, but people need time, context and support to genuinely adopt new ways of working… Reducing change fatigue in the future means being far more intentional. Having a compelling narrative for why change is happening, focusing on adoption from day one and involving people early so they feel part of the journey, rather than the recipients of it. It’s also about pacing. Not everything needs to happen at once and making space to consolidate and celebrate progress. When organisations get this right, change feels purposeful, rather than relentless.”

Another key element of this kind of success, is adopting a mindset in which change is a constant journey, rather than a one-off-process. Corcoran-Henry contends that when companies adopt that point of view, it can build “muscle memory”, helping team to become resilient, more adaptable and much quicker at turning strategy to immediate impact – and with transformation as a core competency, meaning the organisation “doesn’t lose momentum every time a new initiative comes along – it’s already equipped to handle it.”

That does come with its own risks, however. Organisations working this way can slip “into perpetual motion” – launching lots of initiatives without ever pausing to make sure they’re solving the right problems, or delivering meaningful value. Again, this can boil down to building the right culture: treating change as an ongoing journey, but a focused one, maintains a healthy balance, while helping to build internal capability so companies “create space for reflection and learning and make sure people understand not just what is changing, but why.”

Lenses that shape successful transformations

So, when approaching a new campaign of transformation, which perspectives could help leaders understand the terrain and help prepare for success?

Here she recommends first and foremost that companies consider a ‘pre-mortem’ mindset, where they think ahead – “If this transformation were to fail, why would it fail? It’s amazing how quickly that question surfaces the risks, blind spots and behaviours that could derail progress before it’s even started.”

From there, it’s helpful to look at the transformation through three angles, according to the Skarbek expert.

Clarity: “Do we truly understand the problem we’re trying to solve, the outcomes we’re aiming for and the trade-offs we’re willing to make?” 

Capability: “Do we have the right tools, methodologies, skills, capacity and leadership behaviours to deliver what we’re setting out to do, or are we expecting too much from teams already at their limits?” 

Connectivity: “How are we bringing people along? Is communication happening early and often? Are decisions and roles transparent? Is there genuine involvement from the parts of the organisation that will feel the impact most?”

She concludes, “Those lenses reveal very quickly whether the organisation is ready to take on the scale of change it’s tasked with. Transformations succeed when the ambition, capability and human experience are aligned and asking the difficult questions up front is what sets you up for success.”