Page 201 - Managing Change in Organizations

CarnCh11v3.qxd 3/30/07 4:28 PM Page 184

Chapter 11 ■ Strategies for change
included benchmarking in the diagnosis, would have been more explicit about
the need for culture change and would have ‘sold’ the changes as a single and
integrated programme of change with clear accountabilities, more extensive
communications planning and so on. Some argue that by doing so you can
attract more attention, more resources and more commitment to change and
therefore proceed more quickly. I will return to the question of how to design
successful change programmes later on in the book. For the moment let us
merely observe the comparison and move on.

CASE
STUDY SmithKline Beecham

The early 1990s saw dramatic shifts in buying behaviour regarding healthcare costs in
general and pharmaceuticals in particular, whether through government action (in
countries such as the UK, Germany and New Zealand) or through the actions of insur-
ance companies (e.g. the USA). Spiralling expenditure has led to significant attempts to
control costs. Since the creation of SmithKline Beecham from the merger of SmithKline
and Beecham, a major change programme focused on enhancing SmithKline Beecham’s
ability to change and to achieve change faster than its competitors has taken place.
Known as ‘the simply better way’, it comprises a clear change architecture within which
core concepts such as process thinking, quality improvement, evidence-based manage-
ment, continuous improvement and waste elimination are articulated via local level
improvement processes developed within a three-year strategy. In turn the three-year strategy
spells out strategic initiatives, breakthrough programmes and improvement themes. Longer
term there is a 10-year statement of strategic intent focused on achieving sustainable
competitive advantage in terms of customer satisfaction, innovation, integrity, people
satisfaction and performance.
Thus there is a long-term vision linked to carefully integrated moves – three-year
strategic changes, one-year process improvement projects and daily improvement
actions. Clearly the intention is to make sure that everyone understands how it fits
together. Within this architecture much of the improvement momentum arises from the
‘daily improvement system’ through which continuous improvement is sought. Here

methods and techniques, team activities, measurement and recognition/reward are
combined to activate improvement efforts.
All of the above has been ‘rolled out’ according to a ‘road map’ over the period 1990
to date. The road map specifies key elements as the focus of successive years and indi-
cates the processes of conferences, communications, education, training, support and
change roll-out over time. The clear purpose of the road map is to show how the archi-
tecture is being put in place over time.

Conclusion

Following Woodward and Buchholz (1987), we conclude this chapter with a final
pragmatic thought. Let us pretend that there is a scale of the extent to which we
manage a changing organization (in a changing world) effectively. At one end of

184