This paper explores the concept of economic transformation and investigates its relevance to present-day policy debates in Tanzania. This paper, therefore, is conceptual in nature and starts by taking a critical look at a homemade definition of economic transformation. It then presents a brief literature review of the concept of economic transformation and its relation to growth by making a distinction between successful and failed transformations. More specifically, it argues that historical experiences show that there is not a unique process of transformation, but rather a variety of contrastive pathways depending on whether or not they lead to the cumulative convergence or divergence of productivities across the different sectors of the economy.