Canada has produced various world class technology companies, such as blackberry Ltd, and entrepreneurs exhibit a strong drive to become successful in a global economy that is often unpredictable. Digital Economy (DE) was founded in 1994 as a privately owned internet think-tank that focused its efforts on internally diagnosing effects of emergent technologies on domestic organizations, with hopes of expanding globally to influence other credentialed organizations. Digital Economy would experience great success during the technology boom of the late 1990’s, with client demand increasing to consulting, building upon previously implemented research strategies. DE began expansion overseas, increased employee numbers, and sought out new work …show more content…
Then, in the early 2000’s, DE got its first taste of defeat when the technological industry began to dry up and investors started pulling out and looking elsewhere. However, Digital Economy’s founders and staff were confident that they had an irreplaceable service, the lull in the industry would soon pass and business would be booming yet again. Misfortune would continue to follow, miscalculation and organizational decision making led to a continued downfall the following years and leadership would face surmounting pressure. In august of 2001, WI, a large Canadian firm purchased DE with hopes of “helping DE accelerate its expansion as a leading business strategy and research firm” (Charania, 2004, p. 8). With dwindling profit and decreasing demand for services, WI Chief Financial Officer Brian Castro rendered an ultimatum to DE: “If by next fiscal year your team does not realize a profit, we will have to reassess the relationship. Shut down or consolidation” (Charania, 2004, p. 1). With all these factors continuing to build, DE continued to stay faithful to their roots and own ingenuity, management decided there was no need to implement or …show more content…
Advocates assume the largest amount of risk pertaining to their career, because they challenge preset ways. Due to the changing environment and downfall of the technological industry, change in DE needs to be accomplished in a timely manner. The first and arguably, the most important, is getting management to show support for change, employees are also comforted and motivated when leadership spearheads the change process. DE was not turning profit, resistant to acknowledge there was a need for change, and forcing their parent company to put the pressure on them, there was definitely a need for change. Next, I would make sure that I communicate the change plan, to all employees. Being proactive in the change plan will minimize resistance, and make employees at each level feel that much more involved. Once the change is approved, I would create a timeline for implementation of my solutions: I created a sense of urgency, improved esprit de corps, opened dialogue, delved into clientele desires, and added fresh faces at the executive change and implementation level. All of these changes need to be accomplished in a timely manner. An effective timeline will expedite and enable tracking abilities of the process, and ease frustration along the way. As our plan comes to fruition, I would make sure to follow up, to identify successes and shortfalls along the way. Continued adjustment and
The current economic downfall has forced many organizations to strategically restructure and downsize. Broadway Brokers is not immune to these economic challenges and has been faced with competition from discount brokers and Internet brokerage services. Broadway Brokers position of holding the largest market share has been jeopardized by their slow reaction to the shifting changes within the industry. Broadway Brokers staff possessed strong selling and interpersonal skills however lacked in their knowledge of the high tech skills that had been inundating the market. The organizations lack of adapting to new technology and their absorbent overhead was threatening their profitability. The organization was faced with the need to restructure, consolidate, and implement employee layoffs in order to remain competitive with the current financial climate. Rumors of impending office consolidations and staff layoffs had existed for some time. However, the CEO commentary in a Financial Times article confirmed such gossip. In fact, decisions had already been made by top management to enact a structural plan that would severely curtail offices, close offices, and reduce the level of employees across the organization. Top management was firmly fixed upon downsizing and consolidation and was now relying on its management staff to come up with a plan to implement a transition. A dozen of the company’s most respected managers – everyone from assistant vice presidents to managing directors were join together to devise a plan for change (Jick & Peiperl 2003).
Leading Change was named the top management book of the year by Management General. There are three major sections in this book. The first section is ¡§the change of problem and its solution¡¨ ; which discusses why firms fail. The second one is ¡§the eight-stage process¡¨ that deals with methods of performing changes. Lastly, ¡§implications for the twenty-first century¡¨ is discussed as the conclusion. The eight stages of process are as followed: (1) Establishing a sense of urgency. (2) Creating the guiding coalition. (3) Developing a vision and a strategy. (4) Communicating the change of vision. (5) Empowering employees for broad-based action. (6) Generating short-term wins. (7) Consolidating gains and producing more changes. (8) Anchoring new approaches in the culture.
Over the years, ICT, information communication technologies, has lead to a smaller world. A world where information can be transmitted instantaneously, a world where the quality of the information received has vastly improved. This information highway era has become so efficient that it has created a "global village". Canada is placed in a rather unique societal position today in this global village. It stands out from the rest of the world with its culturally diverse population, community networking and experts in the field. From representing its multicultural citizens through broadcasting programming, to creating successful community networks, and having leading experts in the field of communications, Canada must be considered one of the leading model communication innovators to the rest of the world.
A great deal of information was covered this week such as, the necessity in which businesses need to effectively plan and set objectives, the strategies utilized and how they are executed to obtains results, and how managements decisions can potentially affect those results. Although each topic covered was found to be interesting and informational, there was something in particular that struck a chord, which was how business establishments have to be flexible and adaptable and in many instances plan and change their strategies of today, in order to keep up with the evolving technology of tomorrow. Something that one often thinks about is how individuals use technology today and how companies that provide that technology are adapting. For instance, author Richard Daft of the textbook, Management, 12th ed. brings to light the potential issues that Intel is facing explaining “As another example of an external threat, Intel, whose microprocessors power most PCs, is being hurt by the decline in demand for personal computers as more people turn to tablets and smartphones.” (Daft, 2016, pg. 259). After reading this, one wanted to take a deep look into what it is exactly that Intel intends to do to overcome this obstacle and found some
During the 1990s, each company experienced specific difficulties to their market share. Both companies struggled to reestablish themselves in the global consumer electronics world. As the year 2000 came around, new CEOs at both companies came up with even more complicated initiatives and reorganizations. Outsiders wondered how each company’s internal changes would affect their endless competitive battle in the industry.
Elite Engineering has been unable to successfully implement change because they haven’t been able to get the employees to see the need for the change and to believe in the change. “It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things.” (Kotter & Schlesinger, 2008) Change is often met with resistance. When it comes down to it many people fear change. At Elite Engineering, the engineers were happy with the way things were being run. They enjoyed the billable work they were doing and did not want to take the time to collaborate with others, as it would take away time from their billable work. The engineers saw the billable work they were doing as a way to ensure they received their bonus at the end of the year. However, they were failing to see that the litigation business was going to begin to shrink and in order for them to remain competitive, changes needed to be made. Kotter and Schlesinger state that there are for common reasons that people resist change. The four reasons are the desire not to lose something of value, a misunderstanding of the change and its implications, a belief that the change does not make sense for the organization, and a low tolerance for change. (Kotter & Schlesinger, 2008) At Elite Engineering, I think upper management was unsuccessful at implementing change because the employees didn’t want to lose their bonuses (something of value to them), they misunderstood the change, and they didn’t feel that the change made sense for the organization.
This paper will be broken down into six sections profiling each critical part of implementing and managing change in an organization. The sections included are; outline for plan creating urgency, the approach to attracting a guiding team, a critique of the organizational profile, the components of change, and how to empower the organization.
Change usually comes with resistance in any workplace because change disrupts the employees’ sense of safety and control (Lewis, 2012). Kurt Lewin (1951) created a three step process for assisting employees with organizational Change (Lewis, 2012). The three stages are Unfreeze, Change and Refreeze. These are the steps to a smooth transition for change within organizations. Further, these steps are not possible without good communication from upper Management through line staff. Communication was consistently listed as an issue in surveys conducted by the department.
In today’s ever changing world people must adapt to change. If an organization wants to be successful or remain successful they must embrace change. This book helps us identify why people succeed and or fail at large scale change. A lot of companies have a problem with integrating change, The Heart of Change, outlines ways a company can integrate change. The text book Ivanceich’s Organizational Behavior and Kotter and Cohen’s The Heart of Change outlines how change can be a good thing within an organization. The Heart of Change introduces its readers to eight steps the authors feel are important in introducing a large scale organizational change. Today’s organizations have to deal with leadership change, change in the economy,
Change affects more than just a program or a process within an organization, change affects employees, collecting data on employee’s readiness and willingness to accept a change will help leaders know if the organization is socially ready for change (Cole, Harris, and Bernerth, 2006). A change might be positive for an organization but if the employees who will be affect by the change are lost in the process then it could create a greater issue than not making the change. Leadership needs to communicate and inspire the employees to be positive toward the change, seeking to enhance their job satisfaction not make changes that will increase their desire to leave. This data is best collected early in the change initiative allowing leadership to properly cast the vision while addressing concerns. This requires leadership to create platforms for employees to engage in the change initiative freely (Ford, 2006). Employee attitudes can be measured through these dialogues providing leadership with necessary measureable data (Hughes, 2007).
Brynjolfsson, E., & McAfee, A. (2011). Race Against the Machine: How Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity and Ireversibly Tranforming Employment and the Economy. Lexington, Massachusetts: Digital Frontier Press.
Remove barriers: If follow these steps and reach this point in the change process, and will discuss the vision and build the support of all levels of the organization. The Organization shall review the organizational structure, job descriptions, compensation and performance systems to ensure they are in line with this vision. Create urgency for change to occur, it is useful if the whole society really wants. Develop a sense of urgency about the need for change. This can help the company Alphabet Games spark of motivation to get things moving. It will help to identify potential threats, and develop scenarios showing what could happen in the future. It also examines
The transformation of a company requires hundreds, sometimes thousands of employees to adopt a new view of its future, a future they must regard as essential. Change management involves managing the process of achieving this future state. Change can be viewed from two vantage points, that of the people making the changes and that of the people experiencing the changes. In the top-down, or strategic viewpoint associated with management, the focus is on technical issues such as the investment required, the processes for implementing the change, how soon the change can be realized, and the outcome. In the bottom-up viewpoint of the employee, the focus is on what the change means to the ...
The change process within any organization can prove to be difficult and very stressful, not only for the employees but also for the management team. Hayes (2014), highlights seven core activities that must take place in order for change to be effective: recognizing the need for change, diagnosing the change and formulating a future state, planning the desired change, implementing the strategies, sustaining the implemented change, managing all those involved and learning from the change. Individually, these steps are comprised of key actions and decisions that must be properly addressed in order to move on to the next step. This paper is going to examine how change managers manage the implementation of change and strategies used
The first phase is introducing the change in an organization to the employee by justifying the change (Berube, 2012). Change in an organization is necessary to cope with the fast changing environment and meet the organization’s goal. The top-management is responsible to explain clearly the importance of change execute in an organization to the employee. It is necessary since there are some of experience employee is refuse to accept change and senses that change will lower their reputation and position in the working environment. As elaborated by Brown (2011), there will be criticized, ridicule and persecute in change towards any approaches used in introducing change of the organization. At this stage, la...