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Executive Interviews: Interview with Michael Hammer on Change Management
June 2007
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By Dr. Nagendra V Chowdary
Do you still see the relevance for
operational innovation in the
heightened commoditization across
the industries?
The more commoditization in an
industry, the greater the need for
operational innovation—it is one of
the few ways for a company to
establish some true differentiation. Is there a relationship between the
national culture of an organization
(where its roots are; the headquarters
is) and its organizational efforts?
Yes there is. Different countries have
different strengths and weaknesses
when it comes to succeeding with
operational
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innovation. For instance,
some are more comfortable than
others with making deep change; on
the other hand, some of these may be
better at the teamwork needed for
operational innovation. Why do you think some change
agents are successful while many are
not? For instance, Howard Stinger at
Sony. Even those who are successful
once (initially) are not consistently
successful. Why is it so? For instance,
Ed Zander at Motorola and Carlos
Ghosn at Nissan Motors.
I cannot comment on these specific
examples, but in general, executives
who are successful at leading major
change are passionate about it, are
willing to invest their personal
prestige in it, maintain commitment
rather than just treat it as a short-term
project, and are willing to do whatever
it takes—including dismissing
members of the executive team—to
make it succeed. It might be relatively easy to
identify the need for a change
initiative / intervention in the case of a
company, i.e., there are sufficient
warning signals alerting the company.
However, change management is
required at an individual level too (in
different capacities; at the highest
level one becomes the initiator; at all
the other levels, one becomes the
follower). What are the signals for an
individual to look at change
management initiatives before he / she
is forced upon to embrace the change?
I am not sure I understand this
question, and in any event, I think it is
outside my area of expertise. If you look at companies like Nike,
Southwest Airlines, Bloomberg, etc.,
how difficult is to manage change
(including the transition) when the
founder-CEO is not around?
In some cases, it is more difficult to
make deep change when the founder
CEO is still around, since it is often
difficult for that individual to let go of
the principles and techniques that led
to the company's original success.
Deep change is often best led by
someone other than the one who
created the system that is being
changed. How do you think companies can
make "Change Management" a part of
their "catastrophe culture" (as
Samsung Electronics CEO Jong-Yong
Yun has done) so that the fire is on at
all the times, both good and bad?
The most successful companies
always believe that their success is
only temporary and that they must
always change or decline. This is a
characteristic of Wal-Mart, Intel and
Progressive Insurance. Creating a
culture like this is the responsibility of
the CEO, who must instill it through
personal behavior, expectations of
other managers, the reward and
promotion systems, as well as through
relentless communications.
1.
Change Management Case Studies
2. ICMR
Case Collection
3.
Case Study Volumes
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The Interview was conducted by Dr. Nagendra V Chowdary, Consulting Editor, Effective
Executive and Dean, IBSCDC, Hyderabad. This Interview was originally published in Effective Executive, IUP, June 2007. Copyright © June 2007, IBSCDC
No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced or distributed, stored in a retrieval
system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or medium – electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise – without the permission of IBSCDC. |
