|
Executive Interviews: Interview with Michael Roberto on Change Management
June 2007
-
By Dr. Nagendra V Chowdary
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 think the key is for the right match
between the leader and the situation.
Levy was right for the situation at the
BIDMC, but his approach may not
work in all organizations. The same
goes for Gerstner or Iacocca. I don't
believe in "one best" leadership style.
I think the key is for a match between
the leadership style and the situation
at hand. Scholars call this "situational
leadership."
|
|
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 think the key is to solicit feedback
from others on a frequent basis. Seek
out the opinions of others. Put your
ideas out there, as scholars do, and let
others offer their input. 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?
Well… Nike had some issues when
Knight first left many years ago. But,
Southwest and Bloomberg seem to
have managed the transition
remarkably well. For instance, the
cumulative profit of the US airline
industry has been negative over the
past 35 years. Yet, one firm has made
a profit every single year during that
period—Southwest Airlines. They
Interview 6
have a strong culture and a strong
organization. They are quite
dependent on Kelleher, but they did
build a strong enough organization so
that they could thrive as he stepped
back. 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?
I think the key is to always look ahead,
to be vigilant about small problems
before they escalate. As Andy Grove
of Intel has said, "only the paranoid
survive." Too often, we get
complacent after much success. The
great companies do as much as
possible to keep looking ahead.
Immelt at GE has said that this was his
greatest challenge, to get managers at
GE not to look back on twenty years of
success under Welch, but instead, to
look ahead to the new challenges that
the decade ahead would bring.
1.
Change Management Case Studies
2. ICMR
Case Collection
3.
Case Study Volumes
|
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. |
