WHY TRANSFORMATION EFFORTS FAIL

A Seminar Paper
On
Change Management

Submitted by:
Roshan Kumar Rauniyar
Birgunj Public College
PU Regd. No.:052-2-3-12882-2018

Submitted to:
Office of the Dean, Faculty of Management
Purbanchal University, Biratnagar

In partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of

Business Administration (M.B.A)

March, 2020
Biratnagar

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 RECOMMENDATION

This is to certify that the Seminar report

Submitted by:

Roshan Kumar Rauniyar

Entitled:
WHY TRANSFORMATION EFFORTS FAIL

It was prepared as approved by this Department in the prescribed

format of the Management Faculty. Report is forwarded for
examination.

Head, Research Department Pro.Dr.Deepak Shakya ………………..

Seminar Supervisor Mrs. Sonila Shakya …………………

Campus Chief Mr.Binay Shrestha …………………..

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 DECLARATION

I Roshan kumar Rauniyar declare that this report entitled WHY

TRANSFORMATION EFFORTS FAIL submitted in partial fulfillment of the
MBA Degree, the Faculty of Management, Purbanchal University is my original work
carried out under the guidance of Ms. Sonali Shakya, and has not been submitted
anywhere for the award of any other degree or commercial purpose. In keeping with
the ethical practice in reporting scientific information, due acknowledgements have
been made wherever the findings of others have been cited.

…………………………….
Roshan kumar Rauniyar
Birgunj Public College
Campus Roll No.: 21/074F
PU Reg. No: 052-2-3-12882-2018

VIVA VOCE- SHEET

We have conducted the viva-voce examination of the thesis presented

By

Roshan Kumar Rauniyar

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 Entitled

WHY TRANSFORMATION EFFORTS FAIL

And found the report to be the original work of the student and written according to
the prescribed format. We recommended the report to be accepted as partial
fulfillment of the required For Master in Business Administration (M.B.A) fall 2074
3rd semester

VIVA –VOCE COMMITTEE

Head, Research Department Pro.Dr.Deepak Shakya ………………..

Seminar Supervisor Mrs. Sonila Shakya ………………….

Campus Chief Mr.Binay Shrestha …………………..

Member (External Expert) Dr. Uttam Kumar Regmi ………………….

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis entitled “WHY TRANSFORMATION EFFORTS FAIL” has been

prepared in partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of business Administration
(MBA) under the course designed by the Faculty of Management, P.U. This study
is based on the prescribed research format involving the Change Management .

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I would like to express my profound gratitude and sincere appreciation to our
supervisor Mr. Binay Shrestha for their valuable suggestions, encouragement,
inspiration and continuing guidance for accomplishing this valuable task.

I would like to thank my friends and family for there support during all the stages of
report preparing.

Thank you

………………………………………….
ROSHAN KUMAR RAUNIYAR

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Follow the following pattern

CHAPTER CONTENTS PAGE
DECLARATION i
VIVA –VOCE SHEET ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS v

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LIST OF TABLES vi
LIST OF FIGURES/DIAGRAMS vii

Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1 .1 BACK GROUND OF THE STUDY……………………………
1.2 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY …………………………………
1.3 STUDY METHODOLOGY………………………………………

CHAPTER 2: OBSERVATION AND FINDING

2.1 Kotter’s 8 step Change Model……………………………………….
2.1.1 Create a sense of Urgency……………………………………………

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 2.1.2 Form a Powerful guiding Coalition………………………………….
2.1.3 Create a change vision……………………………………………….
2.1.4 Communicate and shape the vision………………………………….
2.1.5 Enable Action……………………………………………………….
2.1.6 Create Short –term Wins…………………………………………….
2.1.7 Donot Let Up……………………………………………….……….
2.1.8 Make it Stick………………………………………….…………….
2.2 Benefits of Kotter’s model…………………………….…………………….
2.3 Limitation of Kotter’s model………………………….…………………….
2.4 Application of Kotter’s model…………………….…..…………………….

CHAPTER 3: CASE STUDY

SONY CORPORATION
3.1 Problem Identification
3.2 Kotter’s Step Apply and Result

CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION ………………….

Reference………………………………………………………………….….

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1 .1 BACK GROUND OF THE STUDY
-why
-kotter model
-organization

1.2 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

1.3 STUDY METHODOLOGY

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CHAPTER 2: OBSERVATION AND FINDING

2. 1 Kotter’s Eight-Step Change Model

Kotter (2012) suggested a model for managing changes within organizations. He
observed the behaviour of more than 100 companies and proposed eight steps to be
followed to increase the likelihood of success of changes to be integrated. The order
of the eight-step model is important to be followed.

2.1.1 Establishing a Sense of Urgency

Kotter (2012) claims that any change needs to be taken seriously to have a good
chance to succeed. One way to do that could be by making the effects of a change’s
absence visible as much as possible. That may include recession in competitiveness,
market shares, and financial performance. There should be at least 75% of a company
of whom are agreed that the current situation would not lead to a satisfactory future.
By making that happens, an urgent atmosphere could be created, and thus, the
complacency level becomes low and staffs get out of their comfort zones.
Strategies to create a sense of urgency are as follows:
 Explaining and realizing the benefit of the change
 Creating and developing opportunities for the user
 Clear communication and information procedure
 Convincing the major supporting groups and motivating them
 Value creating and inspiring proposal for the change

2.2. 2 Forming a Powerful Guiding Coalition

Change momentum are pushed using a force of effective organizational power that are
agreed on making that change. Therefore, a change is more likely to be happened if it
is led by a powerful guiding coalition. Power here does not only refer to
organizational titles, but that also includes expertise, relationships, and reputations.

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Without that kind of cooperative coalition, it is quite difficult to confront resistance
actors and absorb their reluctance. People seem to value changes that are led by
important organizational characters more than the need to make a change. Therefore,
there is a high risk for any change to be taken seriously if not led by a powerful group
of people (Kotter, 2012).
Strategy in forming the powerful guiding coalition:
 The team as a whole should reflect enough power so that those left out cannot
block progress.
 All relevant view point should be represented so that informed intelligent
decision can be made with strong trust and commitment.
 The group should be seen and respected by those in the firm so that the group
can enhance their credibility.
 Recognize the opportunities and build the capacity of leading the change.

2.3.3 Creating a Vision

Having a vision for any organization plays a significant role in guiding staffs to where
the organization is going to. Any plan is then built according to the need of the
organizational vision. Having a vision is thus as same as having a destination, while
the related plans are as same as using a compass to reach that destination. On the
other hand, lacking a vision may result in irrelevant plan, and thus confused staff,
which may eventually lead to incompatible projects and activities that make the
organization ends up in the wrong direction (Kotter, 2012).
Strategy to develop the change vision:
 They convey a clear picture of what the future will look like and should be
imaginable.
 Stakeholders should show interest with high desirability.
 The goal should be realistic and should be attainable for the vision.
 It should be focused and proper enough for providing guidelines for decision
making process.
 Vision should be flexible with the space of expansion as per requirement
 They should be easy to communicate and can be explained quickly.

2.4. 4 Communicating the Vision

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Kotter (2012) emphasizes that it is not enough to have understandable, simple, clear,
and strongly relevant vision. Without harnessing all possible methods to share and
promote that vision, it would be still comprehended at a limited organizational level.
Kotter (2012) also highlights the importance of giving examples for how to achieve a
vision by setting different strategies for example, which makes it quite easier to be
comprehended by the staff. Under communicating the vision maybe resulted from
developing a vision, but using only a single form of communication. Moreover,
managers do not adopt the principle of walking the talk quite often, nor remind of the
desired behaviors.
Strategy for effective communication of the vision:
 Communication should be done in simple and formal language which should
be understandable and usable.
 It should be vivid using verbal pictures which is more worthy than a thousand
words-use metaphor, analog and example.
 Two way communication is more powerful than one way communication.

2.5. 5 Empowering Employees for Broad-Based Action/Enable Action

Any implementation of a major change requires actions from people (Kotter 2012). It
is very possible that any effort will fail if someone from a team, supervisor or
especially some executives try to undermine the effort to implement a change. Kotter
(2012) emphasizes the importance of such employees to be recognized since a whole
project maybe led to a disaster. There is also tremendous importance of leaders to
help employees to overcome their barriers during implementation as they in most
cases exist only in their heads.
Strategies for empowering change action are given below:
 Hire change leaders to deliver results on the vision
 Gain consistent feedback, recognize and reward people for the implementation
of the change.
 Determine the compatibility of the change vision with the organizational
structure, performance and other functionalities of the organization.
 Immediate action to remove obstacles that block the change.

2.6. 6 Generating Short-Term Wins

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It is obvious that big and serious transformations require long time to be
accomplished. In most cases a project that is aimed to bring a transformation takes up
to 18 months or even longer. In order to keep complacency down and to successfully
perform the project, shortterm goals are to be set. In that way, it is quite possible to
avoid resistance from employees over the long time period that is required to
successfully accomplish such a long time transformation.
Strategies in order to generate short term wins are as follows:
 Implement only small change whose result can be obtained quickly.
 Select cost effective targets that can be easily obtained.
 Analyze targets to avoid failure –use pros and cons to determine early target
success.
 Recognize the people who help to meet the targets through the rewards.

2.7. 7 Build on the change/Do not Let up

A common mistake that is done by companies during a transformation process is to
celebrate when some stage of it has been done. As Kotter (2012) says, it is not wrong
to celebrate such a success, but it is a terrible mistake to create an impression among
employees that the job has almost been done. If such an impression has been created,
there is a huge possibility that transformation will fail. Instead, after the improvement
is further consolidated, it must be continued with changes and bring the project to the
end. Otherwise, the planned changes will disappear by time and it is very foreseeable
that they will be forgotten in the future.
According to the John Kotter, following are the outcomes by this step in a successful
major change initiative:
 More projects being added.
 Additional people being brought in to help with the change .
 Senior leadership focused on giving clarity to an aligned vision and shared
purpose.
 Employees empowered at all levels to lead projects.
 Reduced interdependencies between areas.
 Constant effort to keep urgency high.

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Strategies to build the change in the organization are as follows:
 After successful implementation of the change in the organization, analyze
what worked and what did not.
 Developed new goals to maintain and continue the change growth in the
organization.
2.8. 8 Anchoring New Approaches in the Culture /Make it stick
It is very important to anchor changes that are performed, and not neglect the efforts
done in order to achieve the current success in an organization. Employees as well as
board of executives must be conscious about what helped them to attain this stage.
There is a serious danger that current changes will not survive if this is not done.
Factors that contribute this error to occur are usually present through retiring key
people who lead the transformation process. It also may happen during resignation of
those people. If something like this occurs, it is of a high importance to ensure that the
next generation management personify the new approach and retain those
organizational values.
Strategies to stick the change to the organizational daily processes and activities are as
follows:
 Conduct a discuss program with the employees about the progress timely.
 Explain the importance of change ideal and values when hiring the people and
conducting the trainings.
 Develop new policies and processes that reinforce the value of change.

Implementing &
8. Make it stick
` sustaining for
change
7. Build on the change

6. Create short term wins

Engaging &
enabling the
5. Empower action
organization

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 4. Communicate the vision

Creating the
3. Create a vision for change
climate for
change 2. Form a powerful coalition

1. Create urgency

Fig: Kotter’s 8 step change model

Kotter asserts that all of these stages must be worked through in order and
to completion .Skidding even a single step or getting too far a head during
the process of managing changing situation without a solid base almost
always create a problem in the business organization.According to
kotter ,”Skipping even a single step may lead to a huge disaster for a
company”.
Hence in a table below,Dr. Kotter had given a relative suggestion in
according to the steps for the change management:

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 CHAPTER I:
TOPIC INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Objectives of the Study
Study Methodology: (OPTIONAL)
Study Design, Sources of Information, Observation, Presentation and
Analysis Techniques
Organization of the Project Report

CHAPTER II: OBSERVATION AND FINDINGS

Observe the given situation, collect sufficient information and analyse the collected
information efficiently.

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 CHAPTER III: CONCLUSIONS
Conclusions

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REFERENCES

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APPENDICES (If any)

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