BITS Pilani

Pilani Campus

Leadership and Management of Change

Sidharth Mishra
Lecture –2, 12.01.2019
Why change initiatives fail?

• The new reality was not properly envisioned.

• People in the system did not understand the changes being pushed on them.
• People involved in the change process lacked buy-in.
• The anxieties generated impeded the organization’s ability to adapt and learn.
• Resistance was not properly addressed.
• Decision making ignored the people being affected.
• The urgency was not fully impressed on all concerned.
• The change initiative was not fully thought through
• The full impact of value tensions had not been properly explained.
• Ethical issues in initiating change.
The change mind set

• An organization executing change needs be adaptive, creative and innovative.

• Optimize Group Synergy around creative efforts
• “Departmentalization” of change initiatives weaken the effort by creating
artificial barriers.
• The weakest link should be adaptive and creative.
• Foster creative spirit among all employees.
• Openness to change.
• A learning organization (see next slide)

• Creativity is the capability or act of conceiving something original or unusual. Innovation is the
implementation of something new that has realized value to others. Shawn Hunter, “Out of
Think: How innovation leaders drive exceptional outcomes?”
• Synergy: the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other
agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects
Characteristics of a Learning Organization

• Explore, Enquire, Search, Reflect

• Open to changes in the environment.
• Allows change to percolate.
• Employees are allowed multiple perspectives on the changes being initiated and
not ONLY the official version.
• Learning is affective (appealing to “feelings”) as well as cognitive (appealing to
reason)
• Interdisciplinary Coordination
• Active and constructive feedback
Learning and unlearning

• Unlearning “old” ways

• The Lexus Story
Lexus represented Toyota’s drive
Into the luxury car space then
dominated by German players
like Mercedes and Audi.
In order to reduce vibration and
Noise in the car, some of these firms
would add unnecessary weight to
It. This affected the vehicle’s mileage.
Toyota chose to attach the source of the problem which was uneven combustion
and created Lexus around the concept.
The shape of new realities

• The future is now. It is embedded in the contours of the present.

• The irrelevance of a prediction. It is better to accept the unpredictability of the
present world and work around it.
• Seeds of new realities taking shape as we labour of the present moment.
• Successful change management companies are observant and curious.
• Challenge their employees and associates by changing rules.
• Change as an opportunity.
• Such companies are “addicted” to change.
• They change popular behaviour by talking to feelings.
• Steve Jobs and Apple.
• Started Apple with a bang. Was fired. Returned to Apple after nearly 10 years during which he tried his
hands at many things including at being an astronaut. (He got rejected and the rocket that he was to
board met with a disaster on the launching pad killing all occupants, the challenger disaster).
• In his second avatar as Apple he built i-pod, i-phone and i-pad and took them to great success.
Identifying new realities

• This is one of leadership’s main tasks. A leader is not required if no change is

there in the offing. A ‘bureaucrat’ would do.
• The work is affected by the tendency to mute or downplay the part of reality that is
inconvenient.
• Reality Testing
• Leaders openly engage with their employees and other stakeholders at all
levels and sectors to debate and investigate new realities.
• They arrive at a co-created understanding of reality.
Why groups fail to deal with change signals?
• Failure of anticipation
• Bajaj Scooters lost steam in the eighties with the arrival of the Maruti 800 and widespread
availability of consumer finance.
• Bajaj Motor cycles in the 2000s failed to anticipate the rise of the old“Bullet” on the wings of a
shift in customer preference for a “masculine” bike.
• Failure of perception
• E commerce eating into the pie of traditional shop keepers
• ITC getting into stationary/ FMCG business in order to make up for the falling demand for
cigarettes.
• Failure to attack the problem.
• Vested interests who want the problem to continue.
• Lust for power.
• People feel reluctant to abandon something that they had long invested in.
• Some prefer to die rather than compromise.
• Incompetence
• Failure to solve the problem.
• Kingfisher Airways
Hunooz Dilli Door Ast Delhi is still far away..

Mohammed Shah Rangeela Nader Shah of Persia

Emperor of Delhi ( 1719-1748) Invaded Delhi in 1739
Systemic Leadership and Inductive Thinking
• Good leaders create organizations where “systems” are in place to handle
change.
• Good leaders practice inductive thinking v/s deductive thinking
• Deductive thinking is based on set rules and models through which a
professional looks at his/her businesses and environments
• An inductive thinker looks at the situation and fashions his/her own tools to
study them.
• “ Why look at things as they are and ask why? Better to look at things as they
should be and ask why not?”
• Dell versus HP (2007-2011) in India
• Dell achieved great success with their direct selling model where they bypassed the normal
channel comprising dealers and distributors and in turn focused on contacting the customer
directly. It worked well for as long as the customers of IT hardware was primarily institutional in
nature.
• Dell changed its business model once the consumer segment became important.
• In the said period, Dell entered the Indian market using the channel model. The strategy was to
hit HP which was the reigning player with over 40% share in the PC and laptop market. HP was
an over distributed product, sold from all shops which led to intense channel competition with no