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The
Challenge of Change
Any business or organisation that stands still is really going backwards,
relative to its competitors. The challenge to any business that
wants to be successful is, as with most living organisms: “to
create order inside change and to create change inside order”.
Major change includes: corporatisation, new technology, restructuring
the business, mergers and acquistions, divestments etc.
In most businesses, it’s the desire of owners and the duty of directors
and managers to maximise shareholder wealth. In the jungle of commercial
survival this requires a constant awareness of and a continuous measured
response to demands for change.
Although some businesses can do well, at least for a time, by being
efficiently reactive, most real winners are
highly pro-active, making use of change as a
means of maximising their competitive advantages and commercial returns.
In most businesses, and especially in family
businesses, there is nothing more certain than that an older generation’s
(or senior management's) opposition to change will alienate, disenfranchise
and ultimately destroy the next generation’s interest in participating
in the business - assuming the business survives long enough for that
to be an issue.
Inspiring, implementing and managing major change goes far beyond the
normal challenges of management, as it requires an almost contradictory
mix of strategic thinking, leadership, management, aggression, openness,
vulnerability, optimism and realism.
Our Change Management Facilitation Process
Collectively, we have many years’ experience working in industry,
law, accounting, management consulting, dispute resolution and professional
problem solving. Using an extensive network of dispute resolvers,
strategists, consultants, executives and senior family business people,
we support and act as a communication bridge (and filter) between owners,
managers, staff and other generations to:
- Identify business and personal needs, both current and future.
- Develop a collaborative Vision for the
business, incorporating a credible mission statement.
- Develop a collaborative Strategic Plan
for the business and for key people in the business. (For Family Businesses
we may also develop a separate Strategic Plan for the family).
In developing the Strategic Plan we apply agreed values and goals to
the developed Vision to produce tangible and quantifiable aims and objectives
for the business for the short, medium and long term.
- Develop a collaborative, credible and comprehensive Business
Plan which details, down to a divisional or operating unit level,
the activities and results required to achieve the objectives set out
in the Strategic Plan.
Developing the Business Plan creates a
commercial, non-personal environment where individual roles, responsibilities
and accountabilities can be allocated in accordance with the planned
needs of the business. This is a fundamental part of the process
as it identifies, according to objective commercial criteria, individual
and organisational capabilities and deficiencies.
Decisions are then made for the sake of the business,
to satisfy the agreed needs of the Business Plan. We approach
the task in this way to avoid the risk of embarrassment and inter-personal
conflict where ther are people in the business with known deficiencies.
- Work with key personnel to design and develop practical implementation
plans for enhanced / replacement business systems.
- Facilitate implementation of enhanced / replacement systems by helping
to introduce concepts of change. We approach this task as a negotiation
with staff designed to overcome their fears and objections and to develop
consensus, ownership and champions amongst all stakeholders.
- Facilitate training for enhanced / replacement business systems.
- Facilitate monitoring and future modifications of new systems.
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