THE STRATEGY FOR CHANGE APPROACH

There are some critical parameters that influence the design of a change strategy:

• Objectives of Change - what're the specific goals and objectives will be reached in the ending of change process. They must be defined first.
• The timetable for change - how quickly will the change be introduced? Specifically, will there be a pilot/transition period for people to get used to the change. This decision will be influenced by the degree of resistance anticipated.
  
• Experience with Change - how often you have experiences in change. How often your companies make change in the business life cycle?
  
• Retention/Turnover - many of people or employees in the company usually retent the change process. It's must be anticipated.
  
• Involvement in the change process - The degree that people will be involved in the change process is very important. For some changes, the change team should aim for complete transparency - the process of introducing the change is so well managed, that the organisation barely notices. In this case the organisation should still be told of the change and the reasons for it to avoid feeling manipulated

Change Strategy Approach

There are two types of change strategy - incremental and transformational.

1. Incremental change doesn't challenge existing assumptions and culture. It doesn't modify the existing organization. It uses existing structures and processes; it causes little disruption; it's relatively low risk; it's slow and it may not produce enough change.

2. Transformational change changes existing structures, the existing organization and the existing culture. It's relatively high risk. It's fast and focuses on major breakthroughs.

Incremental change is aimed at making many small-scale improvements to current business processes. It focuses on small-scale improvements because experience shows the likelihood of succeeding with a small-scale improvement is much higher than of succeeding with a large-scale, 'strategic' improvement project. In incremental change, the participants do not need or want top management involvement, which they see as a hindrance that will slow them down and prevent them making progress.

Reengineering is an example of transformational improvement. It involves radically rethinking and redesigning a major business process with the objective of achieving large-scale improvements in overall business performance quickly - and the product development process is a prime target. Product development runs across many of the traditional business functions, and has a high degree of customer and/or supplier involvement.

Reengineering involves redesign of a company's workflow and application of Information Technology to the new workflow with the aim of obtaining competitive advantage. To achieve this kind of breakthrough requires major change to processes, organizational structure and management methods.

Re-engineering fundamentally changes the way a company works - which is why it is so difficult. It changes the way processes fit together, changes the way people work, and changes the way systems fit together. It's hard work. Typical activities include rewriting job descriptions, inventing new recognition and reward systems, implementing new computer systems, retraining, changing financial reporting, and changing relationships with suppliers.