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 My Take: Helen L. Horvath, MA, PsyD (Cand), Principal, Founder/CEO, HW Associates
The perspective: Business Change Models
The organization is in a flux. Each division has a separate agenda that does not seem to unite the overall organizational mission statement. It has been a pattern for years within the organization. Each time the organization attempts a change “forces” beyond management’s control seems to interfere inthe success of the change process. You drive hard towards the goal; yet, do you truly have buy-in at all levels? Your business change model seemed solid on the front end. You seemingly involved the key players, those individuals who sign and approve changes within the various divisions. It seems as if change will occur.
Then the organization begins the change process expecting a huge return on investment (ROI). “Everyone” is excited about the change; yet, is there truly ‘buy-in’ at all levels/ The something happens or a series of events happen that cause a change in how the organization does business. There may be a merger or the global economy takes a down turn affecting your bottom line and your ability to reap maximum return on investment. Stuff truly just happens that causes organizations to reassess the path they are on. But then something happened. Or maybe a lot of somethings. A mandate to cut costs eliminated the resources needed to deliver the ROI. A big merger disrupted business as usual. A vendor hit the skids. A country went to war. You name it – stuff happens.
Small and large corporations normally have an idea of why their business is failing. There is a sense of fear that the ship will sink and that they will be responsible and accountable for the losses to their investors. The organization may have worked diligently to implement change without assessing how they attained successes and failures in the process. The focus was only on forward movement without rating the levels of success within the organizations. CEOs and CFOs that I have spoken with normally understand WHY their business is sinking. They often feel as if their hands are tied by the processes invested in. Years into the change process that has been extremely challenging at best, these managers and corporate officers dread the idea of reopening the old wounds of failure. By digging in the past failures and successes it feels as if the organization is being sucked into a vortex of unmanageable change. Why put the organization in THAT position yet again?
This is where HW Associates business change model comes into play.
The best method of starting the change model is where the practical benefits and application or attaining your original goal in crystal clear. You know that your original goal is worth attaining. Yet, through all of the change modeling you may have lost sight of the original bottom line change model. You feel it in your gut that the change is worth having. So find that right one, rinse it off in the sink, and turn it over to one of the advisors or consultants at HW Associates. See how far you really are from the goal line. You may surprise yourself to see how close you really are to attaining your complete change model.
If you are at a third down within reach of the end zone, ask for a tactical plan to cover the remaining yardage to attain that touchdown at the lowest cost possible. The tactical plan will include major gap analysis and assessments along with the honest discussion of how your organization will meet and overcome those major gaps. Look at the specific levers that include performance indicators, human capital, return on investments, capital improvements, logistics and receivables, process cycle times, gap analysis, employee value proposition, organizational valuation, and process improvement cycles.
Large enterprise applications are often difficult to manage since so much can go wrong. Often things do not go ‘as planned’. Sometimes what needs to be done is that the organization gets a handle on why the goals were missed. Were there shortfalls in the process or was intelligence missing creating the gap? Was there confusion in the performance indicators that were developed in order to attain that touch down? An experienced consultant can help you make the assessments rapidly and timely. There is no reason for an organization to stop short of a touch down. The goal can be reached while attaining the full value you expected up front. Sometimes what is needed is an independent set of fresh eyes and a back-up plan. Big enterprise application projects are tough. Plenty of things can go wrong, and many of them do. But that’s no reason to stop short of extracting the full value you expected up front. Sometimes all you need is a little back-up plan – and some fresh eyes.
The Perspective: Utilizing financial transformation in the business change model
There are two categories of failed businesses that have been well documented through scholarly and business models. The Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution and Measurement of success of the change process.
Many times organizations do not truly trust the process associated with ERP and change management. The solution is simple. If your team spends valuable time ignoring policies and procedures, missing deadlines, while double and triple checking things that did not need to be checked due to systems accuracy you simply need to stop being so KIND. Push for the policies in place to be followed. They are there for the security and protection of the entire team. Instead of one department fixing another department’s errors, correct the errors at the source. Firmness and adherence to organizational policies and procedures creates a lower cost per action and an overall cost savings.
The measurements of success in the change process can be a daunting procedure. Sometimes upper management has a difficult time discerning what, if any, benefits were attained. There is no mechanism in place to track progress and there is no viable measure to demonstrate cost savings to the organization. Develop measures of expected benefits that will become a part of the executive performance measures and float them through the organization provided the much needed leadership. Measurements are the key to organizational change and success.
The Perspective: Business intelligence
Organizations large and small utilize key functional areas to build information management systems and business change models for decades. From the research labs created by Lewin in the 1940’s to the current change process models; there are documented cases for organizational change. Successful organizations capitalize upon their functional areas such as Logistics (supply chain), Marketing, Sales, Human Capital, and Finances to develop their change models while utilizing business intelligence to drive change. Some have reaped the rewards to the tune of millions of dollars in benefits for the entire organization while other investments have become multimillion-dollar losses due to the change process coming up short. There are many reasons for the unsuccessful initiatives in the business intelligence arena. Some of the most frequent reasons that initiatives do not work are listed here.
Corporations, both large and small, have leaders who do not understand the importance of playing well with others. Just as in a bad marriage where couples do not play well; leaders must understand the importance of transparency and organizational cohesiveness as part of the fundamentals of business change management and professional growth. Bad marriages entail poor communication styles within the organization at various levels. Individual perceptions often over take the organizational goals as personal agendas seep into the work place. As a result individual perceptions of the truth may over shadow the true measure of the organization. The organization’s truths may vary drastically from one department to another in the fundamental measurements in key areas such as profitability and cost analysis/benefits.
Many organizations are unable to translate the changes they see in their business environments in relationship to their approach to business intelligence. Why bother to change? Everything is simply zipping by so fast that it is hard to keep up. Business and technology are constantly on the move; if your business intelligence structure cannot respond rapidly, why bother? Often this is the mentally to change management. Yet, change DOES need to happen in order to remain successful in the market place. It is up to your organization to decide how and when the change will take place in measured steps.
Many organizations never truly realize the benefits of the change process because only certain key players participate in the change. Organizations may not have considered how their back offices will maximize the impact of the newly introduced efficiencies. Creating those efficiencies entails user by-in. When the new data mining solutions do not match up with the ERP capabilities of the organization, especially when it involves the current state information and organizational legacy, you will eventually have a problem.
Utilizing business intelligence will deliver the insights your organization and leadership required to develop the touchdowns that will change the final results of the game. This will require your organization to view both the global view for change management while continually assessing those smaller steps involved in the capabilities and needs of the business.
The Solution:
Many organizations stagnate in change initiatives due to the fact that status quo has been the normative in the organizations. Other organizations have too many ‘cooks in the kitchen’ to effectively manage change. This is where the consultant/advisor becomes a valued team member of the organization. The consultant/advisor is there to advise and is independent from the organization’s original culture and issues. The consultant brings to the table a set of fresh eyes that can touch upon issues that may have been over looked during the initial process of change.
The consultant can create a gap analysis and evaluate your progress thus far. This involves creation of new measured steps that will bring about organizational change. It is possible. Sometimes choosing the “big picture” method does not effectuate the needed change. Did you have buy-in at all levels? Did management create the fundamental key measurements for the change processes within the organization? These are just some of the questions that will be answered during your change process. You simply must believe in order to achieve the needed changes.
Related Insight:
 Organizational goals and values: Social Networking at its best and worst.
 Organizational Transformation: Breathing life back into that old boot. Do you keep the transformation close to the vest or do you give it room to breath life into the process?
Library:
Library: HW Associates Debates
Services: Consulting
Overview: Change management
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