Organizational change is about revising and amending management structures . Organizations must adjust to make it against larger opponents. In order to be better than the competition, organizations need to look for ways to do things more resourcefully. Change should not be feared. It should be viewed as a step to ensure success. An organization’s change drivers include the competitive surroundings, new technologies, consumer request, economic situations and government policy actions . Outsourcing and virtual collaboration are made possible with the Internet. There are regulations that are imposed by the government that can force an organization to implement change. When the country’s economy is on a downturn it can lead to downsizing .
Managing change is important in a time where skill turnover happens in a few months, customers want their money’s worth, and the competition is close . This essay will discuss change events in three different companies and how the top executives at each company overcome the challenges to be successful. The executives are Henry Demone, Alex MacBeath and Pierre Lafontaine.
Henry Demone
Henry Demone holds the positions of president and CEO at High Liner Foods. High Liner Foods is the leading value added frozen seafood supplier in North America. They are unique because they focus on consumers and customers. High Liner Foods provides value added products, strong brands and a global supply chain. Their business model is to be a market leader in all of the key sales channels in North America .
Atlantic Canada has several challenges. One challenge has to deal with demographic. Their local markets are too small. Success in Atlantic Canada means they have to sell nationally, if not in North America or internationally. Atlantic Canada's transportation links are critical for the local economy and a success factor for High Liner Foods. The Gateway infrastructure needs to be improved. First of all, the port of Halifax is well under capacity, and there are a number of issues with the port of Halifax. First of all, there has been a big investment in U.S. east coast ports, in the New York area, as well as further south in Savannah and New Port News. These ports are closer to major population centers, which make it tough for a shipping line to call on Halifax and be competitive to Forward Freight. High Liner Foods will do better in the industrial areas such as Southern Ontario, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois, however there are some challenges there as well. The rail service from Halifax to those markets is acceptable given the volume of freight, but the service is not dependable. The final challenge is of the political nature, which is the ports competing against each other .
Alex MacBeath
Alex A. MacBeath is an Executive Partner and CEO of Grant Thornton, LLP. He has a former and current association with a wide range of community and non-profit organizations. Grant Thorton started in Atlantic Canada. It was formed in 1939 in Halifax and it was a sole practitioner that began the firm, Harvey Doane. As client needs expanded both nationally and internationally the firm expanded to accommodate and meet those needs. There was a need to develop, expand and grow the firm so that there would be the critical mass of capacity and capability as client needs expanded and became greater. The key success for this firm over the years is high standards. The culture of Grant Thornton is different than other firms. It is a very open and collaborative culture .
They are currently guiding the firm through some fairly significant changes. Some of the changes are culturally based and are really trying to alter how Grant Thornton thinks about the practice and the firm. The change starts with a series of individual partners with practices they have built up over the years. Moving from a firm which is a compilation of 200 practices to a practice managed by 200 partners is a very difficult, major cultural shift. Grant Thornton is attempting to take their professionals and partners and put them to the highest and best use and have them focus on clients in areas of practice where they have a real expertise. This allows the clients to have access to the best resources of the firm. Not a 360-degree partner who is knowledgeable in a whole series of areas, but rather a 360-degree firm to which the client has access and from which Grant Thornton has a number of professionals delivering the service. So it is an open, collaborative, collegial type of culture
If one looks at the governance side, they have not gone through any significant changes in governance over the last ten years. Although they are in the process now of reviewing their governance structure because the board, which is comprised of twelve members, has two fundamentally different mandates or two fundamentally different responsibilities. The first is as a representative of the partners, dealing with partnership matters, the partnership agreement itself, partner compensation, partner admission and withdrawals. The second major mandate or responsibility is the strategy or the vision for the firm itself. The long term vision involves looking at or responding to, changes that are going on in the market place. Those are very different perspectives that can cause conflict. What is in the best interest of a partner in a particular location may not in the end be in the best interest of the firm as a whole when taking a long-term view. It is important to be able to reconcile those two very different roles and very different mandates. Mr. Macbeath has presented a paper to the board suggesting some changes in the structure that would still allow governance by the partners while fulfilling both of those mandates. He also feels that Grant Thornton needs to add some outside directors to their board to bring a market perspective, to bring a perspective of the environment in which they practice, to assist them in trying to establish and realize the vision for the firm .
Pierre Lafontaine
Pierre Lafontaine is the CEO and National Coach for Swimming Natation Canada, based out of Ottawa. He has been involved with the corporation or the association for eight months. They won five medals at the World Championship in Montreal in 2005. Mr. Lafontaine feels that by empowering as many people in the ability to succeed in every way, whether it is the nutritionist, the coaches, even the kids that do not win, having the ability for them to be part of a winning team .
Well the first thing they need is to find ways for clubs to grow. They need to find ways for the club to be structured so they do not have to reinvent the wheels every year. They are going to be doing all sorts of things such as improving the coaching education, doing a lot more work into providing clubs with tools and equipment, not equipment in terms of weight room but in terms of material like posters. They are going to do a lot more work of educating the parents and the parent board in how to run clubs. A target testing protocol will be set around the country so that everybody knows where they are compared to everybody else and have levels of progression and levels of the word is, of success .
Changing people’s mindset and making people look at other ways of doing the same thing, is hard. Selling the dream is a challenge to them as well. The economic reality of different parts of the country can also be a challenge. The city of Toronto has not built a new facility in twenty-five years. In Montreal they are building pools right, left and center. The provincial governments in Quebec and British Columbia are great supporters of amateur sports. Mr. Lafontaine sees the roadblocks and feels that all he needs to do is convince people of changes that need to take place .
The organization itself has a vision and goal and they aim at that goal daily. The goal is, this is where we are going and regardless of what happens that is where we are going. The new government will support amateur sports by adding a bit more money and by giving tax breaks to families who are putting kids through sports. Mr. Lafontaine feels that they can learn from outside, but they are not even doing it from the inside. They need to find out the best sport and figure out how they recruit. He feels that it would not take a lot of money it just involves people talking to one another, which is the catalyst for making things happen.
Conclusion
Effective human change management is a long journey. Whenever there is change, new circumstances, challenges and opportunities are presented. CEOs do not only have the responsibility as a leader, but they have the honor of motivating and guiding others through change . The importance of this assignment is that all organizations deal with change. Change is something that cannot be stopped, especially if it is for the good of the company. It does not matter the industry; organizational change is everywhere. Also, each leader has their own way of handling change, which makes them a unique fit for the organization they lead.
Reference
Basu, C. (2016, April 14). What Is the Meaning of Organizational Change? Retrieved from Small Business Chronicles: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/meaning-organizational-change-35131.html
Demone, H. (2010). CEO. (Acadia, Interviewer)
Lafontaine, P. (2008). CEO. (Acadia, Interviewer)
MacBeath, A. (2005). CEO. (Acadia, Interviewer)
The university of Michigan. (2016, April 14). Organizational Change. Retrieved from University of Michigan: http://www.umich.edu/~bhlumrec/admin_unit/mpathways/1999-2000/research/orgchange.html
Wolfe, E. (1995, September). Human Management: The Achilles Heel of Business Process Reengineering. Enterprise Reengineering, p. 2.
