Change Management Assignment 2
Change Management Essay (By: Reem Fahmy - Egypt)
Background:
Co. X was one of the pioneers that produced Egypt 's first packaged dairy products. By the mid 1990s, it led tremendous expansions & grew to be a highly-respected household name for dairy, yogurt and juice products.
In 2007, Co. X 's founder & chairman, took a strategic decision to raise capital in order to finance further expansions through issuing an IPO in two years time. At the time, the company was perceived to be a family business that has been a market leader for years primarily due to its heritage. In parallel, there were persistent rumours that Al Marai, a dairy market leader in the gulf, was planning to put a huge investment to enter the Egyptian market.
Consequently, the founder decided that this anticipatory change approach called re-orientation - as per Nadler & Tushman (1989) - entailed recruiting a team of senior executives with a solid multi-national background to lead the corporate restructure & uplift the company 's image, since companies with well structured leadership teams were highly valued in the stock exchange.
The arrival of the new deputy chairman:
When the new deputy chairman entered his office in early 2007, Co. X 's employees had mixed feelings. He had outstanding credentials given his 30 years experience at P&G in different countries, however, it was obvious that he was extremely sharp, pragmatic, impatient & ruthless. He spent his first month entirely in unannounced relentless trade & factory visits as well as customers ' focus groups nationwide to gain industry understanding & identify potential issues or opportunities. It was his way of demonstrating his values through his actions.
Two months after he joined, he fired the Sales Director for failing to meet the desired monthly target. It was a clear message that he had a sense of urgency to achieve a certain mission & that you were either with him or against him.
New leadership team:
Upon assessing the
Background:
Co. X was one of the pioneers that produced Egypt 's first packaged dairy products. By the mid 1990s, it led tremendous expansions & grew to be a highly-respected household name for dairy, yogurt and juice products.
In 2007, Co. X 's founder & chairman, took a strategic decision to raise capital in order to finance further expansions through issuing an IPO in two years time. At the time, the company was perceived to be a family business that has been a market leader for years primarily due to its heritage. In parallel, there were persistent rumours that Al Marai, a dairy market leader in the gulf, was planning to put a huge investment to enter the Egyptian market.
Consequently, the founder decided that this anticipatory change approach called re-orientation - as per Nadler & Tushman (1989) - entailed recruiting a team of senior executives with a solid multi-national background to lead the corporate restructure & uplift the company 's image, since companies with well structured leadership teams were highly valued in the stock exchange.
The arrival of the new deputy chairman:
When the new deputy chairman entered his office in early 2007, Co. X 's employees had mixed feelings. He had outstanding credentials given his 30 years experience at P&G in different countries, however, it was obvious that he was extremely sharp, pragmatic, impatient & ruthless. He spent his first month entirely in unannounced relentless trade & factory visits as well as customers ' focus groups nationwide to gain industry understanding & identify potential issues or opportunities. It was his way of demonstrating his values through his actions.
Two months after he joined, he fired the Sales Director for failing to meet the desired monthly target. It was a clear message that he had a sense of urgency to achieve a certain mission & that you were either with him or against him.
New leadership team:
Upon assessing the
References: Nadler, D. and Tushman, M. 1989. Organizational frame bending: Principles for managing reorientation. Academy of Management Executive, 3(3): 194-204. Bert Lance, May 1977. Nation 's Business magazine. Leading change when business is good: An interview with IBM 's Sam Palmisano by Paul Hemp in Harvard Business Review, December 2004. Bob Waterman, Tom Peters, and Julien Phillips, June 1980. Structure Is Not Organization article in Business Horizons. Donald Sull, February 2009. How to survive in turbulent markets article in Harvard Business Review. Kathleen M. Eisenharde & Shona L. Brown, March - April 1998. Time Pacing: Competing in markets that won 't stand still article in Harvard Business Review. Tiziana Casciaro & Amy C. Edmondson, May 2007. Leading change at Simmons case in Harvard Business Review. Michael Beer & Nitin Nohria, May 2000. Cracking the code of change article in Harvard Business Review. Frank V. Cespedes & Sunro Yong, February 2013. Andrew Ryan at VC Brakes case in Harvard Business Review.