On Business Transformation

By Alex K. Lam, MTS MRAIC

Many companies went through restructuring and reengineering in the last decade. There were external activities involving mergers and acquisitions as well as internal activities dealing with realignment and restructuring of business units. In all cases, the new direction has a profound influence on employees. The business transformation process must take this into account. The Business Transformation model described here depicts three major areas that require particular attention in order to achieve a successful transformation.

Integration
When companies are acquired or business units are realigned, you need a transformation process to unify the parts. For example, imagine there are four business units. They may represent the newly acquired companies or the newly established business units. Each one can be very different from the others in terms of business culture, practice or tradition. Due to the sheer speed of change, some companies fail to allow time for designing and executing a proper integration process. The result is confusion among the troops as well as the customers. No matter how many groups there may be, a well-implemented transformation process should result in a common new corporate identity and culture. In other words, no more separate voices, but one voice - one 'brand.'

Communication
The best buy-in for any change is not a global mission slogan uttered by some charismatic change agent. There must be clear communication from the leaders about the vision and the reason for change. 'Employees are our best assets' is a much-abused slogan, which backfires when action does not match vision. Over the years, companies have invested millions of dollars in the training of their employees. This wealth of knowledge (or competencies) resides with employees and should not be lost due to downsizing. When employees leave, institutional memory and knowledge go with them.

An effective transformation process should allow employees an opportunity to understand the vision and direction. Let them participate and arrive at a shared vision. Let them contribute to the process of transformation by applying their experience and knowledge. You do not need to sell 'change' when their contribution becomes the formation of a process. They will institute change themselves because they have access to accountability.

Workplace
The movement of personnel, the new team culture, and the new work processes must be supported by the physical workplace. Not only are social-technical changes necessary, changes to the physical environment share equal importance. Changes that translate into new work activities must be supported by workplace redesign to foster productivity.

Success cannot be realized unless it is monitored and measured, so an evaluation system must be instituted to determine whether you have succeeded or not. The result may call for celebration or redesign. Transformation is an on-going process and has to be maintained, analyzed and enhanced.

Alex K. Lam is President of The OCB Network, a Toronto, Canada-based company specializing in business transformation and corporate workplace learning. Lam, a highly regarded mentor and educator with more than 25 years experience in the outsourcing industry, currently works in the area of corporate real estate and facilities management placing special emphasis on the human aspect of change.

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