Change is all around us, in the business world, in our personal life, within governments, everywhere. To succeed in the business world, we need to design change, understand change, and implement change effectively. Because in the business world change is inevitable. Of course you can say ‘Floyd the Barber doesn’t ever change.’ This may be true, and perhaps Floyd isn’t getting any new customers either because he doesn’t know how to cut hair to match the latest styles.

Why do businesses need to be responsive to change? Here are a few reasons a business must change if they want to survive:

• Customer requirements change
• Business environment changes
• Gaining a competitive advantage
• To be able to scale effectively
• Improve productivity and efficiency
• Improve quality levels
• Become a market leader
• Standardize infrastructure

Every business professional can relate to any one of these to all of these items as reasons that made their business change. Let us take a look at the standard change management bell curve:

At its very core, change management is about:

• Understanding the impacts that are going to occur and minimizing the negative impacts
• Effectively communicating the change to the right audiences at the right time with the correct information
• Identifying and improving the support of key stakeholders

There are tools which can help with this process include Stakeholder Analysis, Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats Analysis and Core Competency Review, and many more. Let's look at the benefit of effectively utilizing Change Management methodologies and tools.

The gold line is the original productivity level. The blue line is productivity when using less effective Change Management techniques and tools. The green line is productivity when Change Management techniques and tools are effectively employed. This is really what the fuss is all about. Since change happens all the time, those who manage change effectively will have a competitive advantage over those who don’t.

May all of your change efforts go as planned.

contributed by Michael Vigil and Pete Pazmany
Co-Authors of Driving Complex Change

Spotlight: Do you WOBA?

Do you WOBA? Maybe you do and don't even know it. As business professionals we all develop a personal approach that enables us to see new opportunities or handle current challenges. For some of us it may not be as clear and for others it may be crystal clear.

Here is a personal approach I call WOBA - Wins, Opportunities, Barriers, Actions, that will certainly enable you to take control of any direction you choose to follow. Let me explain.

In life and business there are many things that we accomplish that are taken for granted by those around us, as well as by ourselves. Taking the time to mentally acknowledge an accomplishment can be uplifting and motivating. It is about celebrating the moment. Therefore keeping sight of your daily Wins will enable you to self promote and re-energize.

Equally true is that there are many Opportunities where each of us can make a difference in our daily business lives. The first step is seeing the opportunities and then making a plan to achieve them.

Along the journey we will all face Barriers or obstacles that can be daunting and overwhelming. It is during these moments that we need to rally the strengths of our wins to power the Actions needed to resolve the barriers.

The Actions are based on a thoughtful plan to understand and resolve the known Barriers to a given Opportunity that you have determined is important to Win. OK that was WOBA backwards. So, let's WOBA! Music is optional.

contributed by Pete Pazmany
Founder of ASIL, Inc

Industry Trends

Trends Changing Supply Chain Management

According to an article published in Supply Chain Leader, April 2007, there are four mega trends influencing supply chain strategies.

How do leaders develop the bonds necessary to make transformational leadership possible? According to Bernard Bass, author or “The Ethics of Transformational Leadership” there are four interrelated components essential for leaders to move followers into the transformational style.

1. Mass Customization: Customization is a key differentiator in the consumer’s buying experience. As an example, Dell allows customers to choose memory size, type of processor, monitor size and other hardware and software characteristics.
2. Globalization and Micro-segmentation: New service opportunities and marketing challenges are being created by the aging populations of the U.S., Europe and Japan. Micro-segmentation of markets will replace traditional macro-segmentation, resulting in the parallel transition from macro-focused Supply chains to micro-focused supply chains designed for serving the individual consumer.
3. Rapid Innovation: Competitive advantage can be gained by focusing on product leadership, customer intimacy and operational excellence. How Companies make their innovation strategies operable will be as important as the initial spark of innovation itself.
4. Collaboration Among Multiple Enterprises: In the new business models, companies are no longer a single enterprise, but members of specialized teams comprised of vendors, service providers and customers. As companies focus on building more responsive and flexible supply chain networks, they are discovering that they do not have just a single supply chain. The globalized business model has re-engineered today’s supply chain so that each member becomes a best-of-breed contributor within what Forrest Research calls an “innovation network.”

“What makes this moment in history unique is the perfect match between the primary force of economic change – the scale and influence of the individual consumer and the abundance of consumables available – and the ability of information technologies to manage and synchronize the complexities of global manufacturing and distribution networks. The ability to quickly and efficiently align and control these distribution supply chain networks will provide the horsepower for the global economic engine.”

contributed by Deborah LeBaker

Editor's Corner: #8 Warriors beat the #1 Mavericks!

It has been 13 long years since the Bay Area fans rooted for the Warriors in the month of May. On May 4th, the Golden State Warriors completed the upset, 111 – 86. Only the third time a #8 seed has defeated a #1 seed in a 7 game series and the first time since the opening round changed from a 5 game series to a 7 game series. To make this even sweeter for Bay Area fans, this is the first 7 game playoff series that the Warriors have won in 31 years!

So how did they do it? How did they overcome the challenge of beating the #1 seed? The answer is quite simple. They played to their strengths rather than try to match up to the Mavericks strengths.

Is there a correlation in the business world? How about when you are bidding against other companies to win a contract? Should you highlight how well you match up to your competitors? No, because this keeps your competitors in the spotlight. The winning strategy is to highlight your strengths. Sell the Customer on the competitive advantages your team brings to the table. Then they will see how well your competition matches up to you, keeping you in the spotlight.

Next up for the Warriors was the Utah Jazz. While the games were very close with the Warriors playing to their strengths, the Jazz also played to their strengths. The Jazz controlled the boards and turned offensive rebounds into easy put back points. While the Jazz ended up winning this series, the Warriors learned some valuable lessons for next year. They will have to be able to change their strategy, still playing to their strengths while mitigating risks posed by the other team. Just like any business, they have to be flexible to position themselves for the win.

Sound off and let us know what you think. E-mail us at msingletonl@asil-inc.com with your thoughts on highlighting your strengths and on the Warriors. We look forward to the chat!