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In RGP’s survey of 400 CFOs, 49% say their transformation agenda exceeds their organisation’s ability to execute. Count how many of your own initiatives landed on time

Nearly half the finance chiefs in a new survey say their agenda is bigger than their organisation can deliver. So the first number to ask your own programme for is a plain one. Over the last 3 years, how many of its major initiatives delivered their intended results on time?

On 3 November 2026 RGP published a survey of 400 chief financial officers (CFOs) and equivalent finance leaders. RGP, a professional services firm, sells on-demand talent and consulting to finance chiefs, so it has an interest in a capacity gap. The finding still points to a test that costs you one question, and the answer will be your own.

Below: what the CFOs said, what the survey can carry, and the one count to ask for this week.

Most of these CFOs expect a good year, and nearly half say their transformation agenda is more than their organisation can execute

RGP’s release reports these findings from the 400:

The release sets the first two side by side: 89% report a positive financial outlook, “yet 49% say transformation demands exceed capacity”. Few of these CFOs name money as the biggest constraint on value over the next 3 years. Only 7% name access to capital, against 43% who name execution or organisational factors.

Scott Rottmann is RGP’s president of consulting services. In the release he said companies “have learned how to allocate capital, but they haven’t learned how to allocate change”.

Fewer than 1 in 3 of these CFOs say they have a strong on-time record

Read the third finding with care. It counts finance chiefs, not initiatives. Only 31% of them say at least 3 in 4 of their major initiatives delivered the intended results on time, over 3 years.

So most of these CFOs did not say that. The same test, 3 in 4 delivered on time, takes one meeting to run on your own programme.

The survey shows a direction, and your count shows where you stand

RGP’s full report sits behind a sign-up form, so we have not seen the full method. The release says iResearch Services ran the survey in September 2026. It covered organisations with annual revenue of $250 million or more. The results are unweighted, so no adjustment was made for the mix of firms that answered.

The figures describe transformation programmes in general. They are not a measure of what happens after a go-live.

That is enough to set a direction. Your own count shows where you stand.

A go-live adds its heaviest work to an agenda nearly half these CFOs say is already too big

A go-live does not end the programme’s call on finance. The first closes on the new system, the data fixes and the new reports all fall to the same people. Those people are also running the rest of the agenda.

If that agenda already exceeds what the team can execute, the go-live work queues behind it, or it pushes something else back. We think that is where the gap shows first. The on-time count tells you how much room your team had before the next date arrives.

Count the on-time share before your next steering meeting

Ask whoever keeps your list of major initiatives (the programme office, or your strategy lead) for one figure. Of the major initiatives in the last 3 years, how many delivered their intended results on time?

Use your programme’s own meaning of “major” and “on time”, and write it beside the count. Then work out the share. Is it at least three-quarters?

If it is, your count sits with the 31% who say that. If it is not, it sits with the majority who did not. RGP’s meanings of “major” and “on time” may differ from yours, so treat it as a direction. Then the next question is who finishes the work that follows your next go-live, and with what time.

If you run one work package, count that package’s milestones and how many landed on their date. If you work for the integrator, ask your delivery lead which of these records your firm may share. Ask who owns the question with the client.

Done when: one sheet lists the major initiatives from the last 3 years that can be named, and how many delivered on time. For one package, it lists the milestones instead. It shows the share and what “on time” meant.

Take one question to your programme office

Over the last 3 years, did at least three-quarters of our major initiatives deliver their intended results on time?

For the people who run your work packages

The Capability Brief is written for the practitioners who run each work package on a programme. It is on the record at capability.ai.

This week’s long read takes the next step: who finishes the work after go-live, with how many hours.

A Baseline report grades how an organisation runs change, step by step, red, amber or green. To see one, read ours, which is BusinessGPS assessed by its own Baseline: the BusinessGPS Baseline report. Read it to see how the grading works.

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