1

Zain group change management process implementation.

By

Student’s name:
Institutional affiliation:
Date of submission:
 2

Company overview.
Zain Group is a leading mobile voice and data services solutions provider in Kuwait. The mobile
services provider has extended its services to 8 other Middle East countries and managed a
workforce of around 6200 employees to serve its customer database that serves approximately
47.7 active customers. From a small company, since it began venturing outside Kuwait, Zain
group has advanced the ranks among its competitors with value is estimated to be around $5.4
billion. From an unknown mobile services provider to an international telecommunication giant,
we can comfortably refer this as a quantum leap. Zain Group is a master of transformations in the
fast-paced modern environment with relentless international competition. Given these conditions
of global existence, the Zain group faces a lot of decision points. They have to choose between
stagnating or keep reinventing themselves to a youthful look in the international marketplace.
The company will need to continually change the form of management, structure, and culture to
trigger better results.
One of the outstanding culture at Zain group is that every operation in the organization stress on
ensuring a positive impact on employees, customers, and the community at large. The culture at
the organization is accommodative, which creates a suitable environment for employees to
purpose towards achieving the overall goals and objectives of the organization. Undoubtedly
telecom services are on a global demand, which provides a chance for the company to offer its
services globally.
Vision: To set new benchmarks for a promising future.
Mission: To build a company effectively and efficiently, that builds long term customer value.
Policy: Constant attention to the customers' needs.
Reason for change.
Change is an essential skill for all organizations to maintain a competitive edge over their
competitors. The change also helps a company to build and sustain a position in the market. The
extent of modification at Zain group can be ordered under the model conceptualized by Nadler
and Tushman (1995). The model identified the process of change in two dimensions: 1)
incremental change, which entails small and gradual change events, and 2) transformational
change, which has a significant impact on the operations of the organization. In other words, we
can identify change as proactive, which planned to the market forces, and 2) reactive, which is
designed to mitigate or respond to the market forces. That said, Zain group has been
experiencing so much failure in projects they tried to implement both inside and outside Kuwait.
They will need a change of processes to mitigate this issue.
Causes of the problem.
Achieving global success is dependent upon a pool of dependent factors. However, we often
come across common themes that emerge when companies attempt to operate beyond the
boundaries of their domestic. In the case of Zain, the most prevalent problem is the management
 3

and governance of operations along a path that aligns with the interests of the global
marketplace. Poor governance can be attributed to several reasons which include:
1) Lack of planning.
Part of Zain's group failures both at local and international level results from a lack of proper
planning of operations. When to remain relevant and compete with the foreign market, Zain
takes some of its services overseas and uses integration strategies that are not applicable at an
international level.
2) Poor communication.
This affects the company when they enter into business with customers with a different culture.
This poses challenges, and the company may fail to sustain its customers. Zain needs to have the
right communication plan for the global marketplace.
3) Lack of market adaptability.
The inability to fit into the global market place is also a significant factor leading to failure.
Failure to adapt results from a poor relationship with suppliers, poor marketing, not hiring the
right talent, and associating with the wrong business partners. People around the world view
services differently, and the Zain has to be aware of how to rise to every possible perception.
4) Poor market acceptance.
It’s not a guarantee that the foreign market will accept the solutions the company presents. The
company needs to plan for the right campaigns and take advantage of the appeal that the
international market develops about their services.
Intended change.
Zain group is seeking to extend its services offshores. Thus, the number of employees will also
increase the nature of the leadership structure also has to change to be able to monitor the large
group effectively. While the company is focused on the tech discipline, they need to embrace the
need for different departments, each focusing on its subject. For instance, there should be an
office that oversees the operations of the IT department, human resources, and customer needs
realization department. Zain needs to make the change to reduce the sophistication and poor
handling of issues that are the prevalent case in the company. This can only be made possible by
incorporating project management services into their operations. For instance, if the company
needs to introduce more expertise or machines, they have no department with experts who can
run the procedure to perfection. Remember, for the organization to effectively meet its goals, the
operations both within and outside the organization have to be realistically planned. They need to
change their way of operations such that they can accommodate the services of a project
management office.
From what I learned from my research on how to improve company operations to an
international level, effective change of the organization's content to apply the coordination of
project management is the latest trend that is taking companies to a whole new level. The good
 4

thing with integrating project management is that it's multi-faceted, and every operation can be
overseen from a central office (Daniels & LaMarsh, 2007). Every operation ranging from
planning of projects to managing human resources for continuous growth can be effectively run
from a central office. One the project management office has come up with all the plans, and the
progress can then be rolled out to the respective departments for implementation. Project
management does not end at that point as it is responsible for continuous evaluations and
assessment to determine whether the progress is still aligned towards expected deliverables.
Key findings indicate that implementing change to incorporate project management
transformation can be a turnaround for business performance and maturity (Aubry, 2015).
Ineffective governance of operations leads to multiple errors in the programs. Thus, the project
management office will underpin a unique program of work for every department to ensure
continuous improvement. The project management office will also refine the practices of the
employees and stakeholders to ensure the customer needs are adequately met. Communication,
reporting, and regular feedbacks between departments will also be enhanced as a way of
streamlining a model that supports rapid decision-making and ensures every market integration
receives the right level of attention from the target market. Among the elements I identified that
should also be pressuring the Zain group to institute change include:
1) Evolution of business drivers that are not supported by the current governance processes.
2) Prolonged stagnation.
3) Rapid turnover across the industry.
4) Upcoming staff with improved skill set.
Change implementation plan.
The change management plan will include the following processes:
1) Logging the change.
2) Reviewing change.
3) Planning and assessing the change.
4) Change approval.
5) Coordinating the change implementation process.
6) Evaluation and closure.
7) Handling emergency changes.
 5

Fig 1: Change management flow: Adopted from http://www.jite.org/documents/DCVol03/v03-

01-Huawei.pdf
Essential Information items for the change management process.
The change management process will rely on the items laid out in this section.
1. Change Approval Board (CAB).
The CAB will deliver support to the change management team by assisting in prioritization and
assessment of changes. This body will be made up of IT representatives who will manage
changes that require reestablishment of equipment. The group will also include expert managers,
change managers chosen to ensure that the requested change is thoroughly assessed both from a
business and technical perspective.
2. Cutoff Times.
This change is time-sensitive, and therefore there needs to be a cutoff time for every undertaking.
The CAB will determine the cutoff time to ensure that the change management process is
strategic.
3. Emergency Changes.
There will be an Emergency Change Approval Board (ECAB) that will be tasked with making
decisions on high impact emergency changes. The emergency changes are factors that have a
significant impact on the business. These kinds of situations require an immediate response to
restore the outage.
Change Management Tool.
The dynamic nature of change is a persistent issue to incorporate a project management office.
This will ensure that all departments get predetermined action plans from a central office. Also,
every action within the organization will need to be run through the project management office
for approval or "quick fix." During the change implementation process, there will be issues that
 6

may cause service delay. Thus, the company will need a telecom services manager who can
easily understand the underlying problem and recommend the required immediate action. In the
process of adopting the service cycle, some processes may not run as expected, and the change
management tool will come in handy to avoid disrupting the current image of the company.
Change Management Process.

Fig 2: Change Management Hierarchy: Adopted from

https://www.it.northwestern.edu/bin/docs/service-manager/ChangeManagementProcess2.7.pdf

Categories of Change.
The kind of change to be implemented will be determined according to the Risk Level
Assessment. If it's identified that the change process will have a more significant impact on the
company's operations, more attention will need to be ensured. The type of change will be
reviewed and categorized as follows:
Normal Change: Change that meets the cutoff time.
Filtered Change: Change that is predetermined to be having no impact on the overall scope of the
change management process.
Emergency Change: Change required to restore unprecedented occurrences.
Once the change management team has developed a clear outline of the above, the change
management process will run smoothly and strategically.
Control and evaluation mechanism.
 7

The fundamental question is, why does Zain group need a change? To squarely understand the
question, we will need a diagnosis of the change.
Change Diagnosis.
For this study, Burke-Litwin's (1992) model of change guidance will apply. Overall, this change
is an input, output, and throughput process that will affect every part of the company. This is
because the project management office to be integrated will be responsible for planning and
evaluating all operations. Thus, it will need a sound connection with all departments to make the
operations successful. From the proposed change, more impact will be exerted from a top-level
central PMO. The PMO will be responsible for ensuring that every operation, both within and
outside the organization, is tailored towards meeting the goals, strategies, and resource
distribution plans. The relationship between the various levels of the organization determines the
performance of the organization. Thus, the change will develop a more profound relationship
that will transform the overall look of the organization. Zain group will achieve a new revolution
where every level of the organization will be dependent on the other.

Fig 3: Casual model of the proposed transformational change: Adapted from Burke-Litwin's
(1992) model.
Contingency plan.
Sources of contingencies.
1. External environment.
 Political element.
 8

Zain group may face issues such as restrictions from operation in certain countries. These
political barriers are inflicted by countries in case they want to protect their local service
providers.
 Economic element.
Cases such as the global financial crisis may require the Zain group to adopt emergency change
plans to adapt to the new economic conditions.
 Technical element.
Continuous changes in technology characterize the telecommunication industry. It's not
uncommon for a newly invented technology to become obsolete after being in operation for a
short period. Zain group will, therefore, need to stay adept with new trends to avoid being
irrelevant.
 Telecommunication industry.
The telecommunication industry is growing, and new entrants with advanced technologies are
posing a massive competition for other companies need to keep up. Factors such as service
quality, price timing for new inventions are among the main determinants of the competitive
advantage.
 Mergers and acquisition pressure.
Mergers and acquisitions have become a normal feature of the industry as companies seek to be
more competitive. Mergers give the companies a broader reach, and Zain group will need to have
the right strategies to compete in such a market environment.
2. Internal environment.
 Mission, strategy, and culture elements.
Zain group needs a sharp vision that focuses on the need and strives to achieve maximum value.
 Structure elements.
The governance system must have the ability to create an innovative and responsive
environment.
 Individual roles and motivation elements.
The individuals within the company need the insight and motivation towards achieving value.
Contingency audit
Contingencies Factors to consider Impact
Unaccepted change Discuss and involve all stakeholders High

Ban of operation Venture in other unrestricted areas High

 9

Outdated operating systems Purchase new systems. High

Lack of commitment from Hire new personnel Medium

team members
Change resistance Conduct change sensitization Medium
programs
Change in market policies Adopt emergency change programs Medium

Lessons learned.
From the project, I learned that one of the critical elements for achieving success is learning the
climate you're operating in. This includes the kind of customers, suppliers, and the available
talent. Businesses fail because they don't take time to master the specific elements of the current
market structure and know-how well to transform operations for the better. Being aware of the
climate is also crucial in case the company has a change project that they wish to implement. It
may happen that they are trying to achieve a change process based on experience, while the
present conditions need a new change management methodology principle. It occurs in the
context where many priorities are competing for the same resources, and a company that wishes
to excel among its competitors needs to apply a change process in isolation, i.e., a change
process that better suites the kind of environment it's operating in.
I also learned that a critical factor in perfecting the art of defining the likelihood of a future event
is to have a proper implementation pattern by basing on results from past successful projects. In
any market environment, a previous implementation that became successful will always remain
positive. Effective strategies can, therefore, be laid and reviewed from that particular basis and
then built into massive success in the present project. In most of the researches I did, I learned
that the history of assessment on past projects is very vital when building current projects. This is
because the data from buried projects can resurface and become resistant to the present projects.
The clear lesson here is that for transformation change to be effective, you must understand the
patterns and impacts of past experiences to build success on top of it.
 10

References.
(2019). Retrieved 26 November 2019, from https://www.it.northwestern.edu/bin/docs/service-
manager/ChangeManagementProcess2.7.pdf
(2019). Retrieved 26 November 2019, from http://www.jite.org/documents/DCVol03/v03-01-
Huawei.pdf
Aubry, M. (2015). Project Management Office Transformations: Direct and Moderating Effects
that Enhance Performance and Maturity. Project Management Journal, 46(5), 19-45. doi:
10.1002/pmj.21522
Burke, W. W., & Litwin, G. H. (1992). A causal model of organizational performance and
change. Journal of management, 18(3), 523-545.
Daniels, C. B., & LaMarsh, W. J. (2007, April). Complexity as a cause of failure in information
technology project management. In 2007 IEEE International Conference on System of Systems
Engineering (pp. 1-7). IEEE.
Nadler, D. A., & Tushman, M. L. (1995). Type of organizational change: From incremental
improvement to discontinuous transformation. In D. A. Nadler, R. B. Shaw, & A. E. Walton,
Discontinuous change: Leading organizational transformation (pp. 14-33). San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.