Leading Change and Organizational Renewal

 firms need to develop competency in simultaneously sustaining a dual

management focus; one that concentrates on meeting the challenges of
today's marketplace, another with its eye firmly set on a very different
world that lies beyond the bend.

 A successful company could be said to have a kind of franchise, that is, a

niche in the marketplace within which it has demonstrated its ability to
overcome challenges and operate profitably. But, far too often, that
success breeds inertia.

 As customers and markets change, organizations must continually sow

fresh seeds if they are to remain a viable force in tomorrow's markets.

 firms can either build on or cannibalize their existing franchises to build

those required for tomorrow's success.

 The goal for managers, then, is to sustain current success while

simultaneously building new products, services, or processes for the future.
To do this, organizations must learn to be ambidextrous. When firms lack
such ability, they will rise to some level of success, only to fail and, perhaps,
later recreate themselves under crisis conditions.

 Ask what business they think the company will be in ten years from now. A
fundamental managerial challenge is how to design agile organizations able
to leap from strength to strength to strength.

 Not only has the pace of change quickened, but as organizations become
more global, their ability to exert leverage on suppliers is growing.

 If organizations are to survive long-term, managers must learn how to

create organizational architectures that can be, at once, centralized and
 decentralized, small and large, local and global-in other words,
ambidextrous organizations.- Technology as an agent of change

 sustainable competitive advantage is diminishing because, increasingly,

firms can locate plants anywhere, and call on human, financial, and other
resources without regard for locale.- Cloud computing expertise as a
short term differentiator, and longer term enabler of sustainable
competitive advantage

 the firm's hardware and software that must be integrated to swiftly

execute evolving business strategies. In successful firms, we find all of these
elements changing simultaneously.

 the greatest barriers to organizational change is the tendency for many

companies to develop a strong comfort level based on current success.
They often become complacent, almost arrogant, about their success. They
focus solely on doing what they now do better, rather than building the
foundations for what they'll need to be doing when the world around them
has substantially changed.  Skillful technological vision is the only
predictable forecaster of industry change

 Technological vision helps recognize inertia within their own organizations,

and to understand its root causes. But, we don't stop there. We also give
them a set of pragmatic tools and skills for managing change and creating
the sort of ambidextrous organizations that sustain current success while
simultaneously building new products, services, or processes for the future.