Boulders, Rocks and Pebbles: What Is Transformation Value, Anyway?

The 7 Percent, episode 2 | Host: Andy Haley, CEO of Sullivan & Stanley | Guest: Adrian Mardell, CEO of Sunseeker and former CEO of Jaguar Land Rover | Released 20th October 2026 | 27 minutes 

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Transformation value is the set of pools a transformation can draw on, from cash tied up in spend to the culture that sustains change, and those pools are far from equal in size. In episode two of The 7 Percent, Adrian Mardell, Chairman of Sunseeker and former CEO of Jaguar Land Rover, explains how he sorts value into boulders and pebbles, and why the order you go after them in matters as much as their size. 

Key takeaways 

• Every business has pools of value, some shallow and some huge, and the financial statements show where the biggest ones sit. 

• A boulder, a large pool of value, is no harder to deliver than a pebble, so a programme built on four or five boulders can run on four or five projects. 

• Culture change and customer experience programmes rarely have boulders, so they need hundreds of smaller changes before anyone notices a difference. 

• Starting with the boulders builds the confidence and stability an organisation needs for the harder, longer-term work. 

What is transformation value? 

Adrian starts with purpose. Before a programme begins, leaders need to understand what the transformation is for, sell that purpose to the organisation and know where the pools of value sit. 

“There are always pools of value,” he tells Andy. “Some of them are very shallow and some of them are huge.” 

His first step is diagnostic. Ask to see the balance sheet and the financial statements over a period of time, and the size of each pool becomes clear. 

What are boulders and pebbles in transformation? 

Boulders are the large pools of value and pebbles are the small ones. Adrian’s insight is that a boulder takes no more effort to deliver than a pebble. A programme with four or five boulders can therefore be delivered with four or five projects, then scaled. 

Culture change and customer experience programmes rarely have boulders. They need hundreds of smaller changes before people start to notice a difference, which makes them much harder to deliver. 

Why start with the boulders? 

Cash generation is often the easiest place to start, because most organisations spend a lot of money and their spend profiles give leaders a natural place to diagnose and act. Early wins build momentum, and Adrian sees momentum as one of the most powerful forces in business. 

He saw this at Jaguar Land Rover, where a programme with a £1.5 billion target had line of sight to it within three months. He chose to extend it so that thousands of employees took part, and it went on to deliver several times its original target. 

Who is Adrian Mardell? 

Adrian Mardell is CEO of Sunseeker. He spent 36 years at Jaguar Land Rover, joining as a junior manager and rising to chief executive, and led the JLR board for three years. Over his career he has led transformations ranging from cost and inventory programmes to culture change. 

More from the episode 

The conversation goes on to how Adrian won board support for value levers they knew less well, and how he explained growth to 40,000 employees in terms that mattered to them. It ends with the one piece of advice he would give any chief executive who wants to be in the 7%. 

About The 7 Percent 

The 7 Percent is a podcast from Sullivan & Stanley, hosted by CEO Andy Haley. In each episode, Andy speaks with a senior leader who has been accountable for delivering major transformation about the decisions that shaped their programme. Season one runs to nine episodes, released fortnightly from 20th October 2026 to 2nd February 2027.