Meeting Definia’s associate network: A chat with Gary Thompson

Definia is a leading Transformation Consultancy dedicated to empowering organisations across industries to achieve sustainable growth, adapt to change and optimise performance. Our advisory services are delivered through our Associate community, who bring a wealth of experience as consultants, industry experts, analysts and technical specialists.

All our experts provide specialist skills, so we wanted to showcase why they are the right people to help you with your transformations.

In this instalment of the series, Definia’s Marketing Manager, Alice Hankin, sat down with Gary Thompson to learn more about his background and transformation experience.

Can you tell us about yourself and your professional background?

I’m a transformation strategist and founder of Rokaboat Advisory, with over 25 years of hands-on transformation leadership across global corporates, regional banks and family-run conglomerates. I have experience leading enterprise change across the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

From co-founding QSS, the creator of DOORS, the global standard in requirements management, to directing transformation programmes for Barclays, Holcim, and Emirates Nuclear, I specialise in pragmatic, people-led transformation across operations, shared services, and venture-building, helping organisations embed innovation, uplift performance, and make change stick.

A Fellow of CIMA, I’m also a regular speaker at international conferences on operational excellence, innovation and automation in business support environments.

In your view, what are the biggest challenges facing businesses today?

Post-pandemic, the surge in emerging technologies, paired with the agility of startups, has created a highly disruptive market. Legacy organisations are struggling to respond, held back by rigid structures, outdated technology and a lack of resilience.

Add to that the global uncertainty from ongoing conflicts, and many businesses face a double whammy: unable to pivot fast enough to seize new opportunities or defend against new threats.

Business needs to get more innovative — but the real challenge isn’t just innovation, it’s their ability to adapt.

From a technology perspective, what should businesses be focusing on?

From a technology perspective, businesses should focus less on chasing trends, such as AI adoption, and more on building resilience, agility and capability. That means investing in platforms and tools that enable rapid experimentation, automation and cross-functional collaboration, without locking themselves into legacy structures.

The goal shouldn’t be just to adopt emerging tech, but to embed it in ways that empower the workforce, unlock new business models and create space for innovation to thrive. Technology should be a lever for transformation, not just a line item.

Based on your answer to the above, what are the biggest barriers to achieving those tech goals?  

Legacy, legacy and legacy!

As a member of the Definia Associate community, can you tell us more about what you can offer clients?

My focus is pragmatic, people-led change, helping organisations move from reactive fixes to opportunity-driven transformation. I specialise in:

• Enterprise and digital transformation: From strategy to delivery, embedding automation, innovation, and resilience across operations, shared services, and customer journeys.
• Regulatory and operational remediation: Leading multi-site programmes that uplift performance while ensuring compliance and cost efficiency.
• Workforce enablement: Coaching teams to ideate, prototype, and deliver change, through workshops, sprints, or embedded advisory.
• Zero-to-One builds and venture strategy: Defining investment theses, launching new products, and building internal venture studios to unlock growth.

Whether supporting boards, founders or delivery teams, I help organisations navigate complexity, unlock capability and make change stick — without the jargon!

Don’t miss Gary’s insights on how cost optimisation can benefit your organisation, as well as his ‘fix first, automate later’ approach.

To find out more about Definia’s Associate community or speak to our experts about delivering the change your business needs, please get in touch with our team.