Page 98 - The extraordinary leader

Simplifying Leadership • 75

Strategic Change

On the other hand, there are strategic changes that we look to leaders to bring
about. Included in that category are

● Creating a new vision for the organization
● Redefining the fundamental focus of the business (changing from a
product-focused business to a service business, or from a production
capability focus to a consumer-marketing focus)
● Orchestrate a new strategic initiative (such as the implementation of
Six Sigma throughout the organization)
● Changing the culture of the organization (from a “command and
control” organization to one with higher involvement and
participation from everyone)

We define strategic change as the change that sets the institution off in a
new direction. It means a Kimberly-Clark divesting itself of its forests and
production plants and becoming a consumer-marketing organization. A
commercial bank that changes from a product-focused strategy (a variety of
unique products, each driven through a separate department) to a customer
strategy (the bank needs to identify the unique needs of different groups of
customers and deliver all products through one point of contact with the cus-
tomer). Strategic change is Ford declaring itself a consumer-marketing organ-
ization, not a car company. This was a strategic decision from which they
hastily retreated and for which they paid a serious price.
Strategic and tactical changes are both important. Both are “real” change
efforts, but they differ in scope. Strategic change takes the organization in new
directions, whereas tactical change targets make the organization perform
better in its current sphere.
We conclude that the combination of the four building blocks that have
been described thus far, Character, Personal Capability, Focus on Results and
Interpersonal Skills, is fundamentally all that 95 percent of all leaders need.
Mixing leadership competencies required by different stages has greatly
complicated our understanding of leadership.
Bringing in the leadership requirements of 5 percent of the organization,
Leading Change, and stirring those in with the leadership requirements
for all the rest, compounds the complexity of leadership research and
understanding.