Five Good Reasons
(and Five Bad Ones)
Your Company Should Steer Clear
Of Organizational Transformation

By Doug Wesley

Copyright 1996 All Rights Reserved.
You may purchase paper copies of any of our documents.
Please read our copyright notice.

1. Your customers resoundingly agree you need no change. You're consistently able to delight them by exceeding their expectations. You're overwhelmed with testimonials from customers who say it's easy to do business with you. They love what you do for them and what they have to pay to get it. New business comes primarily from old customers and the people they bring to you.

2. Your competitors are way behind you. You enjoy commanding market share. You lead the field in innovation and it's difficult for others to copy you. You have benchmarked your processes against world-class operations -- both inside and outside your industry -- and you stand eye-to-eye with the best of them.

3. Your stockholders are proud of their investment in your firm. They benefit from solid growth in their capital and have come to expect significant returns in dividends. They trust your management and your employees. They believe that -- beyond financial returns -- investment in your corporation improves the world they live in.

4. Your suppliers bend over backwards for you. They consider you their best customer and are prospering from the relationship. They treat you better than they treat your competitors. They're constantly offering ideas and innovations that improve your competitive position.

5. Employees love their jobs. Those who leave suffer to make the decision and cry when they go. They care enough for each other enough to be honest and to demand the best of their colleagues. They are continually learning and innovating and adding surprising value to the business. They feel challenged and that they are growing more valuable. They know they are fairly paid. They respect and trust their leadership. They're passionately loyal to their customers.

Five Bad Reasons to Avoid Transformation

Even though the first five reasons are not completely true . . .

6. Managers aren't convinced this is the right time for change. They say they don't oppose the idea of change, but what's being proposed is too much too soon. They insist that they be allowed to make the needed improvements in an orderly fashion, showing measurable gains each year according to plan.

7. Your people would be uneasy with too much change. Employees are comfortable in their jobs and they are happy with their work now. Major changes would disrupt morale and would probably cause declines in productivity, drops in quality, or even both. They would make life miserable for managers if too much change were forced on them. They might even sabotage such plans.

8. There would be hell to pay with the stockholders if profits dipped. Investors are pushing for profits, no matter what it means to the future of the franchise. Even though you need to make major adjustments in the way you do business, big heads would roll if you tried anything now.

9. The market is in the wrong cycle. Vendors' prices are high and supplies are hard to get. Customers are beating you up about quality and service problems; they resent the prices you charge and some of them have even discussed competing with you directly. OR . . . You're too successful now to mess with a good thing. You've got your vendors over a barrel due to supply overruns. Your customers are willing to pay anything you charge because they need you so badly right now.

10. You're having too many problems meeting commitments to customers. Key production and quality problems seem to be unsolvable. People in customer contact jobs are miserable and turnover in those positions is draining you: recruiting and training infrastructures are growing while supervisors and managers are overloaded filling in for empty positions. New people won't stay long enough to really learn the system and they compound mistakes made elsewhere. Customers don't help things with their impatience.

Doug Wesley is a professional change agent who works with ChangeCraft™ teams to help business organizations reinvent their work processes, regenerate their structures, and revitalize their corporate cultures so they can thrive in the next century. They do this by changing relationships between employees, by creating extraordinary teams that redesign the company's work and by coaching people who are willing to set an example through personal transformation.

Copyright 1996 All Rights Reserved.
You may purchase paper copies of any of our documents.
Please read our copyright notice.

Last Updated: 7/6/96 16:49