Tools to manage continuing change

摘要

It is a well-worn cliche that competition has never been as intense as it is today. After all, it is an integral part of most consultancy pitches and the most frequently quoted explanation for poor business results in everything from divisional reviews to annual general meetings. Everyone is also familiar with the usual "culprits": globalization, industry convergence, technological advance, low cost providers, fickle consumers - and, more recently, product/price transparency on the internet. And there is little to suggest that these pressures will ease. In fact, with the growing sophistication of the Indian economy and the likelihood that China will soon overtake the UK and France to become the world's fourth largest trading nation, more competitive threats loom on the horizon. During the 1980s and into the 1990s, organizations responded to these waves of change haphazardly. Most were still rigid hierarchies with tightly defined and well-defended functional silos. As a result completely uncoordinated change initiatives were typically unleashed on an unsuspecting workforce in rapid succession. Chaos often ensued, as directors' pet projects competed for over-stretched resources, overlapped or actually conflicted with one another. So the outcomes rarely took the organization any further forward, but morale and motivation suffered and initiative fatigue set in across the organization.