"It's not like we have some crisis"
JT Maloney (IM: jheuristic)
Hi –
Last month I agonized though a lofty lecture on “Change Management.” It was from a slick consultant who assured us with his shiny loafers and PhD. Problem was, it was positively identical to one I heard at Ford Motor in 1988 while participating in a senior management offsite. It was extremely painful, wrenching, and, well, foolish. Ironically, even after a generation, change management hasn’t changed!
Change management is the biggest management and development farce ever known to business. If you have ANY change management or often worse ‘cultural change’ programs in your organizations immediately kill them or resign your post. They won’t work and you will be badly victimized.
Here, for example, is GMs response to change. It is from the BW Article below, ‘The GM Solution: Life Boats, Not Life Support.’ http://tinyurl.com/5qpk7o
And in 2007, with over a million unsold cars in inventory, Mark LaNeve. GM’s head of North American sales and marketing, protested the need for change. “It’s not like we have some crisis,” he told the Wall Street Journal in its Feb. 9, 2007 edition.
If you ever hear the specious change management change mantra, ‘senior management sponsorship,’ run, don’t walk for the exits. If you hear the dopey, ‘change is the only constant’ calmly pick-up your notepad, pen and find a new role.
Change does not originate from the top or the middle. Please. These structures were specifically invented to eliminate change.
(Years ago I rallied against command and control. I was ostracized. GM is now headed to the ash heap of history on their confident rails of command and control.)
Begin to recognize loopy change management experts lament the failure of change management that THEY perpetuate! Woo-hoo! What a $$$ racket…
Here is how friend Shoshana Zuboff in says it in Business Week this week, exactly concerning GM.
“None of this is exactly "rational" behavior, but it tracks with what institutional economists have observed: The more a practice is institutionalized (history, legitimacy, interdependence, codification), the more it is taken for granted, the greater the energy that goes into maintaining it, and the more relentless the resistance to change. In 2006, GM's CEO Rick Wagoner responded to the call for "new blood" in GM's leadership with this screed in Newsweek: "These are sophisticated problems with historical tails that run back 80, 90 years. The chance of someone coming in and understanding our business…is absolutely microscopic."
Today, business and economics is in a headlong flight to value networks and network intangibles. Toyota, Nissan and Honda get it and helped invent it vis-à-vis TPS & Lean. See: http://valuenetworks.com/public/item/209498
The focus on value and network intangibles allows the new “Big 3” to account for 52% of the US car market. Flatly rejecting the vulgar UAW makes them produce products that are enormously popular and profitable. Toyota’s annual profit is more that GMs market capitalization!
Here is a reinforcement of network intangibles from Shoshana.
The car is becoming an expression of identity, values, and personal control in ways that move far beyond traditional segmentation and branding. For example, fuel efficiency will be only one consideration for a socially responsible vehicle (SRV). What percent of the parts are recyclable? What is the vehicle's total carbon footprint? Are there child labor inputs? Toxic paints, glues, or plastics? How transparent is the supply chain? Is the seller accountable for recycling? What methods are used? Are fair labor practices employed?
The new demands for an individualized driving experience at an affordable price require a fundamentally new business model—a discontinuous shift from economies of scale and push marketing to distributed networks of enterprises that cluster around individuals. The single most important factor for competitive advantage will be a brand's ability to forge durable intimate relationships with customers based on trust, dialogue, and transparency. Similar skills will be needed at the enterprise level, as carmakers collaborate with other entities to support diverse customer needs.
Value networks and VNA are highly instrumental in defining this new business logic and putting in-place “…distributed networks of enterprises that cluster around individuals..”
Sure, it is possible to kick-back and not activate in value evolution of business and the economics of intangibles. That will only prolong and perpetuate our dire situation and put all solidly on the path to oblivion like GM.
Here is the article link. Please read and comment, here and at Business Week.
Can’t really say ‘happy reading’ at the moment. Rather, it is time to act decisively.
Cordially,
John
Charles Ehin
Michael G. Cayley
Who is on twitter?
http://twitter.com/retheauditors/statuses/1011580286
From: kal...@msn.com
To: Value-N...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: "It's not like we have some crisis"
Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:36:55 -0700
Benoit Couture
Thanks John,
for putting into words such impressions that are so easy to perceive and yet, so difficult to express in a way that offers an alternative like you do.
It is quite re-assuring to know that the genuine approach to change is in honest hands.
I fowarded your post for dialogue at:
|
Michael G. Cayley
Let's not clog up this list with the thread.
If you want to share your twitter id, email me:
your name, your twitter id
I will distribute the list to all respondents.
Have a good weekend.
Cheers,
Michael
Follow me on Twitter: memeticbrand
Principal, Social Capital Practice
mic...@socialcapitalvalueadd.com
mobile: 647-407-9598
office: 416-462-1859, ext. 2
Skype ID: mgcayley
BONUS Link: Check out Teresa Healy's stuff! gasp!
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--- On Sat, 11/29/08, Michael G. Cayley <mgca...@hotmail.com> wrote:
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John Bordeaux
Snowden Dave
Snowden Dave
Charles Ehin
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JT Maloney (IM: jheuristic)
Growth of a Twitter…
http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/project.cfm?id=634
Burak Arikan is an artist and researcher who focuses on creating networked systems that evolve with the interactions of people and machines. One of his latest pieces has been an experiment with the Twitter API, where he tracked the growth of his Twitter network over a period of 3 weeks. Burak was trying to understand how connections and particular clusters might expand or contract over time.
-j