Change Management articles

Most acquisitions are made with the expectation that one plus one will equal three. Unfortunately, post-acquisition analysis too often reveals a result that is something less than two. Why is this so? Harold Resnick has earned international recognition as a leading authority and innovator in organizational transformation and leadership development. Here he sets out guidelines for managing post-acquisition analysis.

"Must-ask" questions to determine how well your organization is doing. Andrew Carey is a UK-based management author and the publisher of Triarchy Press Ltd. He writes here about staying ahead in the innovation race.

Post the global downturn, organizations face stern challenges regarding how they do more with less and enhance organizational performance. The majority of businesses now recognize that organizational performance requires robust performance management, with the leadership skills and behaviours to bring the process to life.

Incumbent firms often face situations in which their historically evolved business model loses its relative advantage in the pressure of market dynamics. After recognizing the threats in competitive erosion, firms typically engage in transformation processes that aim to revitalize or turn around the firm's business model. Nokia Corporation is an example of a corporation whose business model has dramatically transformed in the face of changing environmental dynamics.

In their efforts to develop new technologies, firms increasingly rely on external knowledge to complement their internal knowledge base. Accordingly, an important element of "open innovation" is "the use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate internal innovation". Despite the growing importance of research and development (R&D) collaborations in particular, and open innovation in general, many important questions are still unexplored...

Business-model innovation is critical to success in today's increasingly complex and fast-changing environment. So, corporate leaders need to understand when to adapt the business model and how to execute the change.

There is an emerging competitive crisis. Multinationals are disrupting competitors and pioneering new price points and applications in the developed world with low-cost offerings created for rapidly developing economies.

Despite all the hype about open innovation, the reality is that few have institutionalized open innovation practices in ways that have enabled substantial growth or industry leadership.

Here we propose an alternative conceptualization for CR - one that takes into account both internal and external variables. This proposed CR concept derives from specific behaviour rather than attitude towards change, and is a strategy-oriented construct that demonstrates the capacity of an organization to respond effectively to new developments in its environment.

Managing innovation is one of the key strategic tasks facing organizations. The question is not whether or not to innovate, but rather how to do so successfully. Low-cost labour countries joining the competition demand ever-higher standards of quality, speed, and responsiveness, and innovativeness has become a critical factor for a company's competitive advantage.