The world is changing so rapidly, organizations should adopt this change to sustain in this changing and uncertain world. Normally organizations plan their strategy for a long period typically for 5 or 10 years, organizations should review their strategy frequently to make any changes as per the present market trend and environment. As one doesn't know what is going to happen tomorrow one should include what-if analysis on their strategy to sustain their business and to avoid business failure.
We see the technology is changing rapidly, if one stick to their old technology without following the present trend they may face business failure, we saw how IBM lost their track and lost their position in computer market after the evaluation of personal computing. Organizations should review their strategy, technology, work procedure, marketing techniques, and work force to sustain in this changing world to follow the present market trend, people's mindset, environment, and competition. Any organization could not adopt the change in one day or in one go. One should have a plan to adopt the change, as the organization got used to their old procedures and methodologies it is not very easy process to adopt the change. The organization should refreeze first to accept the change and to adopt. So organizations must plan for an effective strategy for their change. A strategic change will help the organization to adopt the change efficiently and to sustain in this changing world.
John kotter has developed an eight step change process to adopt the change efficiently and successfully. One can see the eight step process of john kotter as three parts refreeze, implement the change, and freeze. Here in this report we are discussing the eight step process of john kotter.
Establish a sense of urgency: establishing a sense of urgency is crucial to gaining needed cooperation. As this is the first step of the change process one should start it perfectly. As the most of the people are resistant to change organizations need to motivate them towards change and make them to need the change. We must create urgency by deliberating motivating dialogues towards the employees.
Build the guiding team: organizations cannot leave the change process on all the staff spreading. They must have a leader or leaders to lead the change. So organizations need to find the inspiring leaders and make them to lead the change. Choosing the leaders is an important issue in this step, while choosing the leaders one must consider the level of inspiration, skills, expertise, experience and many more qualities of the leader. Once they choose the leaders they must form them as a group and build strong communication between them.
Create a vision: organizations should create a vision for why they need the change, how they are changing, and how they will be in the future if they adopt the change. This vision must be very clear so every employee can understand and feel the change.
Communicate the vision: once you create your vision the next job is to communicate your vision with all the employees. One should communicate and talk about their vision not only by calling for special meeting and explain them but also you need to explain and embed your vision to the employees whenever you find a chance, make the employees to discuss about the vision.
Empower action: this is the step where you stating the application of change, till now we only make the employees to ready for the change so this is the second phase. In this step first we need to find is there any obstacles in the change process, if you find any try to clear them as soon as possible and as smooth as possible. Get the feedback from the change leaders to amend the process or to improve anything, and to motivate the progress one should recognize the best people and reward them.
Short term wins: short term wins are the best way to motivate people. Organizations should create short time goals by achieving them the employees will be self motivated, and this helps to an effective change process.
Build on the change: creating a short term wins is the basic idea for this step, one need to build one their own experiences. So here we need to analyze from the short time targets what goes right, what went wrong, where should we improve and all, and from this we need to build our self on the change process.
Make change stick: in this final step what we need to do is we need to embed this change process into our organizational culture and make change stick.
Role played by sales and new product development departments
As the spreads all over the organization each every department is having its own role in the change process. Coming to the point of sales department one needs to take some extra care as they are the one who takes an organization's products and services into the market. Sales department plays a vital role by taking the change into people and making their sales grow. Sales department need to adopt latest marketing techniques to develop an effective and efficient sales strategy. Coming to the point of new product development technology they should think innovatively as per the current market trend and people's mindset and need to develop new products which takes organization into heights in the market. In this way these two departments plays a vital role in the change process.
Business transformation
As an executive management initiative, business transformation revolves around three elements to make business strategies work. People, processes, and technology are the three basic elements. All of which play a major role in coming up with innovative ways to improve the current setup. Through proper realignment of these three elements, business transformation will always result to achievement of business goals and objectives. People are the key individuals in the organization who will implement business transformation. From the top level management all the way down to ordinary employees, everyone should be committed and dedicated by seeing it to that every single detail is in accordance with company objectives. As members of the leadership team, managers to facilitate change in a way that subordinates will completely understand.
Joint ventures
A joint venture is a venture that is owned and operated by two or more firms. Many firms penetrate foreign markets by engaging in a joint venture with firms that reside in those markets. Most joint ventures allow firms to apply their respective competitive advantages in a given project. For example General Mills, joined in a venture with Nestle SA, so that the cereals produced by General Mills could be sold through the overseas sales distribution network established by Nestle. Sara Lee Corp and AT&T have engaged in joint venture with Mexican firms to gain entry to Mexican markets. Joint ventures between automobile manufacturers are numerous, as each manufacturer can offer its technological advantage. General Motors has ongoing joint ventures with automobile manufactures in several different countries, including Hungary and the former Soviet states.
Joint ventures will help firms in the stage of business failure. For example if a company is having large manufacturing unit and a vast technological background and it is near to the business failure with lack of resources or capital, a joint venture with another form who is having enormous resource and capital will help the first firm to come out of the near stage of business failure. In this way joint ventures as a strategy to avoid business failure.
Marketing alliances
A marketing alliance involves featuring both businesses in either's marketing or sales channels. For example, a local electronics store and cellular phone store might feature each other's products, or provide joint coupons. A marketing alliance is a functional alliance in which two or more firms share marketing services or expertise. In most cases this involves one partner introducing its products or services into a market in which the other partner already has a presence. The established firm helps the newcomer by promoting, advertising and distributing its products and service. The established firm negotiate a fixed price for its assistance or may share in the newcomer's profit. A strong marketing alliance offers many benefits;
Reducing risk: risk arises in many ways for young companies. They include monetary risks and the risks associated with lacking manpower or people with right expertise to do the work. By partnering with a company whose services support yours, such risks can be avoided.
Sharing costs: by supporting each others as you grow, you can share many costs, including those associated with marketing, sales, and lead-generating activities. Perhaps your business has better contacts in a certain geographic location, while your partner has industry connections that you are interested in developing. By working together, you can develop co-marketing opportunities to offer both of yours services as a package to prospective customers.
Improving time to market; with across to your partner's prospects or customers, your growth curve and time to market might be significantly reduced. If you are carrying a high fixed costs, like salaries or equipment, and you can gain customers faster, this can have a tremendously positive impact upon your ability to grow.
As we discussed above joint ventures and marketing alliances will help business organizations to avoid business failure.
