We are tired of Change Part 2 : Retail in rapid transformation

In the last blog in this series we observed that many organisaitons suffer from change fatigue. We argue that often this is due to badly managed or poorly structured change programmes. Given that the pressure for ongoing transformation of business models, processes and technology is a strategic imperative, stopping is not an option. Consider an example of change from the retail sector.   

Would anyone have believed in 1994 that a garage bookseller (Amazon) with $40,000 of investment capital would, over a period of 15 years, become the number 3 global retailer by brand value (BrandZ), despite having to change strategy midway through its growth cycle and move from direct sales alone to providing online platforms for other retailers? This success has impacted the industry as a whole and has forced other retailers to strive for better e-channel sales. Such pressure for change is one of the reasons that the retail sector is at the forefront of continuous renewal and improvement.     

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Struggling to Add Value, struggling to Change?

Is it surprising that many investors, private or public are frustrated with the value they are failing to realise on their investments? Although many will not go as far as John Naughton in his article in the Sunday Observer recently, who suggested “we should feel sorry for the VCs…..well, almost”. More pertinently - he comments later – that it is really only in a bubble that “VCs apper to be like alchemists – able to turn the dross of technology start-ups into pure gold”.

The same is true of the global capital markets and the various professional investors who on their own and their client’s behalf, scan for alpha. There has been much criticism of this industry and in particular the lack of value added by intelligent analysts. Perhaps the most pointed being the research suggesting that chimpanzees can be as effective as fund managers because really, they are only taking a random sample of the markets. Statistically that means they will perform roughly the same as an unweighted index. There are of course exepctions that appear to break the rule. Namely Warren Buffett or closer to shore, Anthony Bolton (although even he has recently left to ply his trade in China). What is interesting about these chaps, is they only seem to invest in what they understand, rather than random samples. Secondly they both had real jobs before they decided to start messing around with large sums of their own and other people’s money. Perhaps work experience counts for something after all? (more…)

We are tired of Change : Change Management is just another meaningless fad

“We have so many change projects that keep changing in themselves that we never seem to get to the end of anything; and that’s before we even try to do our day jobs.”

 Operations Manager in Financial Services

The desire that change in our business might somehow go away, or at least slow down, is familiar to many of us. Just recently an executive commented to me that the term “change” in her organisation had become like the term “strategy” over a decade ago: overused, potentially meaningless, and belonging to the domain of theory rather than real-life business. Even so, I suspect that she, along with many other anti-jargon protagonists, actually realises that change is a normal part of the human condition and therefore a corporate reality. It cannot be ignored, any more than HMR&C. Perhaps the “c” word has become a convenient tag on which to hang many of the wider frustrations encountered in the delivery of corporate objectives.

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Designing a New Code for Change – Part 3

How many executives believe the project status reports they receive? Actually, how many executives can actually use the information provided to make effective decisions?

Control Management

Happy New Year to you all and best wishes for 2010. Lets hope the year brings some economic recovery and balance. To kick off the New Year here are some thoughts by way of conclusion to part 1 &2 of this theme, a new code for change. You’ll know I argued previously that executives need to manage their context and internal capabilities in order to be effective at change. They do also need to put in place effective control, but this must be designed and deployed appropriately to avoid many potentially costly pitfalls. How many executives sitting on investment appraisal boards today bemoan the lack of useful decision- making support they receive, whilst simultaneously being buried in delightfully presented Power- Point status reports and RAG ratings? Often, such reporting is justified as effective “control”, and yet the key decision-makers feel they have no control at all over the complex programs and size-able investments that they are sponsoring. Control is necessary to govern responses to feedback and ensure resources are managed to a plan, but all too often it tends to refer to activities that are “after the event”. Change management requires governance of emergent requirements, resource deployment and goal-focused activity.

As Elbert Hubbard (1915) noted,

“Many people fail in life not for lack of brains or even courage but because they never organise their energies around a goal properly”.

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Designing a New Code for Change – Part 2

Passing your driving test does not make you a good driver

Capability Management

Well seasons greetings and a Merry Christmas to you all. Maybe an appropriate time to post the next installment of our series on Change Management. If you read Part 1 of this article, you’ll know I am critical of organisations who only use the lever of  “Control” to manage change. An organisation must understand and manage its Context and have the Capability to manage change as well. While I was upgrading my domestic boiler recently I was reminded of the phrase…

Passing your driving test doesn’t make you a good driver

The boiler issue led to visits from two Corgi-registered plumbers who were happy to charge visitation fees and, upon encountering an unexpected problem, were equally happy to depart, leaving said problem unresolved. Corgi registration obviously doesn’t address such challenges as worn mains isolation valves. Eventually I found another plumber who was able, through experience and some lateral thinking, to solve the problem and, three weeks after my call to the first plumber, the real project got underway. (more…)

Designing a New Code for Change – Part 1

Why use only one club from the golf bag? – the reason we are still getting poor results from Change Management

I am a pretty average golfer. My excuse is that I don’t play enough. My family may not agree. However, I do know that you cannot achieve a good score by playing with only a putter. As a minimum, you need a driver, wedge and putter to achieve a good round, and then you selectively use more specialist weapons as required. It never ceases to amaze me, then, that so many businesses believe they can achieve good results while using only “one club from the bag”. This is especially the case in change management: many organisations expect to handle this dynamic process by relying on just one technique – administration – even though nearly every thesis on the subject identifies a number of complex issues to address.

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Its the Strategy Stupid

I had to stop myself laughing when I read Steve Tobak’s blog, Its the Strategy Stupid not because its particularly funny that organisations spend millions on Change management and still don’t always deliver results, but because it was refreshing to find someone else giving voice to issues that seem so obvious and frustrating for many of us in corporate life. Large investment programmes can take on a life of thier own and span many years. Ensuring original objectives are being achieved and monitoring strategy alignment is essential. It made me think of Danny Kaye’s poem “The kings new clothes”. In the same way that it was obvious to everyone except the king, that he was naked, it sometimes if feels like that in many of our businesses. Everyone seems to be walking around blissfully naked. When one points out that a few clothes in the right place would cover a lot of future embarrassment there is often little response. Steve Tobak seems highly frustrated with this situation and comments:-

“I’m a little tired of big consultants making big bucks off the backs of shareholders and employees on the flawed principal that it’s all about the change process and they’ve got a better one than the other guy”

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Haldane Strategy Execution

High Impact Delivery

After a tough recession, whether your business faces growth or cost challenges the luxury of spending time on elongated strategic reviews and large scale technology led programmes is diminishing. Getting results and delivering strategy is the focus. Haldane helps your business execute strategy by providing you with expertise on demand and bringing teams of practitioners together. Businesses today require a new form of support, whether it is to grow, re-structure, improve performance or transform.

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Successful Change Has Launched!

The time for a new breed of delivery partner and the launch of www.successful change.com

Well it’s here, Successful Change has finally been launched and we are looking forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas in the area of Strategy Execution and Change management. Interesting timing perhaps given that one of the big boys, Accenture (Read Article) , was recently giving an account of itself in the Times and suggesting that it is time for “execution” not larger technology-led programmes. Well I couldn’t agree more, but remind me, who is it that has been responsible for encouraging and establishing many such large amorphous programmes in the first place?! (more…)

Going about change all the wrong way – a new Code of Change is required

The Nature Of Corporate Change

You may not know that in 1998 Michael Beer and Nitin Nohria, held a conference in order to explore the nature of corporate change. The conclusions were compiled into a text entitled, Breaking the Code of Change (Beer and Nohria, 2000) with the intent of addressing their thesis that the two primary approaches to change management should be more integrated if corporations wanted to improve their chance of success in delivering business transformation. In their theory any change approach with a primary focus on economic value was termed Theory “E”, while Theory “O” described those approaches harnessing organisational capability. In short, some firms are very top down while others are very bottom up in their approach. (more…)