Definition of Strategic Change
The strategic change indicates a vital change within the organization. It can be referred to as the procedure via which restructuring of the marketing or the organizational business can be done that had typically been carried out over some time for achieving certain defined objectives. The changes across technology, people, and the business relationship can be recognized as the key cause for the strategic change. Also Read: business law assignment sample
Types of Strategic Change
As portrayed, organizations often tend to pursue strategic change to maintain or gain a competitive advantage or respond to the changes in the market. While considering the procedure, the organizations tend to choose from the following three options:
Restructuring: This change aims to make an organization increasingly profitable or efficient. Organizations might restructure the departments and hierarchy levels by reducing the departments or bringing about a change in the different departments. Downsizing indicates the other option through the organization can reduce the employee strength for lowering the cost.
Reengineering: While pursuing the change through the process of reengineering, organizations seem to focus on redesigning the business process and the associated systems for improving performance. The business process represents the task that aids in reaching the organization's goals or delivering offerings to the clients. As part of such a process, organizations might also redesign strategies, culture, or technology. For instance, organizations might provide a boost to a cross-functional team. Instead of a single team waiting to finish the task before the start of the subsequent team, they might work together on the project to save time.
Innovation: Organizations will be able to pursue strategic change via innovation which refers to using the resources and the skills for developing new ideas or improving the existing offering. The procedure enables the organization to meet the newer and changing demand. Focusing on innovation requires heavy investment in research and development activities. The professionals of such programs spend a significant amount developing, researching and testing newer ideas. It tends to involve risk since not every idea will result in expected financial success or outcome. Also Read: hnd business assignments
Need for the Strategic Change
The strategic change is needed for the following reasons:
Determination of the Need for the Change: When pursuing strategic change, an organization can identify the change that must be undertaken. In certain situations, the required changes are instantly apparent to the leaders. For instance, when a competitor releases a product, then strategic change may enable an organization to go through the process of innovation and be competitive. Similarly, it enables a business to downsize or restructure as the most suitable option.
Performing Stakeholder Analysis: The change also helps identify the external and the internal stakeholders influenced by a change, followed by prioritization. These seem to change, considering the role, influence, and responsibilities of the stakeholders.
Building Support for the Change: This is one of the ways that lies in creating urgency. This method can be implemented by identifying an organization's threats and demonstrating the significance of the changes in combating them.
Helps in Creating a Network for Change: The strategic change also helps establish a team of change management or a network that can aid in smoother implementation. The team needs to include the individuals who tend to possess the skills and the power necessary to introduce the change. The team happens to be part of the network for change often acting as the liaison between the different stakeholders while ensuring everyone understands the change and its goals.
Role of Strategic Change Management
Strategic change management refers to the procedure of managing the change in a thoughtful and structured manner to meet the goals, mission, and objectives of the organization. It is to be understood that change is vital for an organization to continuously thrive, meeting as well as exceeding the competition put up by the competitors of the industry. For instance, it is found that Mary’s Marker generally provides permanent markers. In that case, the top competitor of Mary, Wally’s Writing Utensil, provides dry-erase markers and permanent ones. Thus, to remain competitive, Mary requires to lead the firm through the introduction of the dry-erase marker.
Tools Used for the Strategic Change Management
Change is never considered easy particularly in the business context as it tends to influence varied aspects. To ensure a smoother transition of the change from the present state to the desired state of the business, some of the tools used for strategic change management are as follows:
An Example of the Strategic Change
An example of the strategic change undertaken through branding is Intel 91 ‘s brand campaign of the ‘Intel Inside’ to differentiate itself from the competitors. Until the campaign of Intel, consumers hardly considered the microprocessor brand within the computer as significant. The strategic change created by Intel led to the creation of an image by Intel as one of the finest quality microprocessors. Buyers are looking for the name Intel while purchasing a computer.
Five Effective Strategies of Change Management
Five key change management strategies deal with the human element of organizational change. Also Read: mba assignment help
1. Proposing of Incentives: The first change management strategy lies in offering incentives that would encourage the people to accept and finally engage with the newer company direction.
2. Redefining the Cultural Values: Another means of driving the buy-in of the employee lies in redefining the values of the organization. This change management strategy depends on the fundamental assumption that the people as social beings look forward to fitting in and getting along with the cultural values and norms.
3. Exercising Authority: Based on the seriousness of the change need, an enterprise might choose to exercise the authority to decrease the opposition of the employees and get the workers to adhere to the newer standards, cultural norms and the process as faster as possible.
4. Shifting the Burden of the Change: Even though people are quite fast in opposing change but they consider a change to be disruptive and undesirable. They do quickly adapt to the new environment. Organizations undertake the advantage of adaptability by creating a new structure that is complete with the new process, values and workflows along with the gradual transfer of the employees. The strategy is best suited for situations involving transformative and radical organizational change.
5. Recruitment of the Champions for the Change: Recruitment of frontline workers to share the change need along with peers can speed up the buy-in of the worker, lower the extent of resistance and also serve as the method for collection of feedback and dissemination of the information concerning the planned initiatives of change. Also Read: uk assignment help