On paper, it all looks great. The business case stacks up. The strategy is clear. The timeline is ambitious but plausible. Dashboards arrive like clockwork, showing “steady progress.”

Reality? Different. Research shows over 92% of major programs hit serious setbacks within the first year*.

Budgets blow out. Schedules slip. Benefits evaporate.

Investors are left asking how a “robust” plan unravelled so fast.

The uncomfortable truth: programs rarely fail overnight. They fail slowly, in plain sight, while everyone pretends otherwise.

This piece gives you the background – and four simple questions to protect your investments.

The Illusion of Control

Telecoms programs are vast, high-profile, and politically charged. Careers ride on success. That pressure breeds optimism bias:

·  Status reports smooth over rough edges.

·  Risks get downplayed.

·  Dependencies are assumed instead of nailed.

Boards and investors are shown a polished picture – the story stakeholders want to believe. By the time the truth cuts through, costs have exploded, options have narrowed, and trust is damaged.

It’s governance theatre. The “amber” dashboard becomes a holding pattern – a polite way to avoid the truth until “red” can’t be denied.

For investors, that illusion is dangerous. Execution risk = financial risk. Confidence drains faster than you can rebuild it. Rivals move while your program stalls.

Why Traditional Oversight Isn’t Enough

Most telecoms boards are drowning in reports – KPIs, risk registers, and review committees.

Yet critical programs still stumble.

Why? Because oversight is usually internal – and internal oversight is rarely independent. The same politics and incentives that shape delivery also shape reporting.

Generalist auditors and consultants often lack real-world scars. You get playbook reviews that treat symptoms and miss root causes.

Or, as one CEO said: “Partners often tell me what they think I want to hear. What I need is the truth.”

Wishful Thinking vs. Delivery Reality

When major telecoms programs falter, the gap isn’t usually strategy. It’s delivery.

Common traps include:

·  Fragile assumptions: resources that aren’t really available, suppliers over-promising; benefits pencilled in, not secured.

·  Weak governance: blurred ownership; decision-making by committee; cultures where raising red flags isn’t safe.

·  Unmanaged dependencies: critical sequencing and cross-team commitments taken on trust, locked down.

Slides look tidy. Reality isn’t. Too often, investors only see the weaknesses when it’s too late to protect returns.

4 Questions Every Investor Needs to Ask

This is where an Independent Program Review (IPR) changes the equation.

It’s the operational equivalent of financial due diligence – not an audit and not consultancy theatre.

It’s operational due diligence for programs – a sharp, experience-led assessment conducted by delivery veterans who’ve run and recovered hundreds of high-stakes programs.

An IPR cuts through the flannel and asks:

1. Is the setup built for real-world friction – or just to reassure stakeholders?

2. Are the assumptions sound?

3. Are the dependencies nailed?

4. Is the team genuinely capable – skills, capacity, and decision rights?

Unlike traditional reviews, an IPR surfaces the truth fast. In days, investors see what’s working, what’s shaky, and what must change

No spin. No politics. No padding. Just the unvarnished health of the program – and what it means for your money.

Prevention, Not Cure

For years, we’ve been the “ambulance service” – stabilising projects that had slipped, overspent, and burned goodwill.

By then, reputations were bruised, millions wasted, and momentum lost.

We’re proud of our track record – 130+ program salvages over three decades.

But the lesson is clear: when the ambulance arrives, the damage is done.

Independent Program Reviews are prevention.  Like a seatbelt or a parachute check, their value is invisible – until it saves you.

They keep ambition safe by exposing blind spots early, before plans harden and self-deception sets in.

Investors Can’t Afford Comforting Illusions

An Independent Program Review cuts through the theatre and says what’s really going on.

It won’t guarantee success – but it dramatically improves the odds by replacing hope with evidence, assumptions with scrutiny, and spin with truth.

To find out more about how an Independent Program Review protects your telecom investments, email me at David.hilliard@mentoreurope.com or call 07860 222282

*Professor Bent Flyvbjerg’s extensive research: “How Big Things Get Done”, 2023

About the author

David Hilliard is founder of Mentor, specialists in strategic program execution.

You can call him on 0118 359 2444 or email david.hilliard@mentoreurope.com.