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Challenges and Success Determinants of Business Transformation (Part 2)*
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Von dem SEViX Geschäftsführenden Gesellschafter, Herrn Rainer E. Ulrich
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At the meta-level, you don't talk about the problem, you talk about how to solve problems.
The cornerstones of meta-management
Interlocking the meta-management disciplines
As the first cornerstone, meta-management provides management with the overarching framework for the various management disciplines (for example, strategy management or risk management) and establishes the links between the management disciplines of leadership, culture, and communication, allowing the process to be effective. This approach has the following advantages:
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- It provides a step-by-step lifecycle model (envision, engage, transform, improve) that allows business transformation to be understood as a holistic process.
- It provides an overall business transformation structure for all levels of management, as well as their formal and informal management roles.
- It focuses on the dimensions of the balanced scorecard for planning and control measures.
- Therefore, meta-management uses the so-called performance management, which covers the integration of strategy planning and implementation, aiming at a continuous improvement process as well as strengthening competitiveness. Performance management has a coordination function as the "steering wheel of the company".
- It provides decision criteria for selecting the right leaders as well as promoters for key positions and facilitates transformational leadership.
- It helps create culture and values based on transformation principles and policies to internalize and institutionalize transformation goals.
- It provides both communication and engagement guidance and supports feedback loops.
This paper does not claim to be a detailed cookbook. Rather, it is intended to serve as a coherent and consistent framework that reduces complexity. Nevertheless, this framework needs to be customized to each company by leveraging the experience of the people involved. Every company and every business transformation is different. Therefore, simply copying "recipes for success" from one company can in turn lead to disastrous results in another.
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The second cornerstone of meta-management is the business transformation lifecycle, which provides an understanding of the step-by-step nature of business transformation. Based on this cycle, business transformation can be organized efficiently. However, to view the change process as something strictly linear would be a mistake that hinders smooth business transformation. Essentially, the process progressively moves through different phases in recurring cycles. A step model that represents these recurring phases is thus required. The following figure shows these four steps: vision, involvement, transformation and optimization.
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Business Transformation Cycle
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Figure: The transformation lifecycle
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The meta-level described in Challenges and Determinants of Success in Business Transformation Part 1 is involved in all phases of the transformation lifecycle model, as almost every aspect - from the change foundation to the implementation options - may need to be revisited a second time as the business transformation and business context evolve. Inevitably, however, the greater focus will be on the directional disciplines in the early stages and on enablement management. Enabling management focuses not on a person's weaknesses but on his or her strengths, which are nurtured and developed. Instead, the weaknesses are underexposed so that they are hardly visible and in no way hinder the process.
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Bottom line
The ability of the business transformation manager to move back and forth between the phases of the cycle, to review the implications of change interventions, and to resolve intended and unintended consequences is rare, but extremely valuable to the business. Change management has both abstract theory and theory- and experience-based knowledge, the latter being the actual foundation for business transformation. Typically, "experience-based knowledge" represents a deep level of behavior and attitude; however, achieving this level does not require a single session or a series of training activities.
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The content of the four phases of the transformation lifecycle and the outcome and requirements for each phase are discussed in Part 3.
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[*] Excerpt from the SEViX book "UNTERNEHMENSWERTSTEIGERUNG - Business Transformation as an opportunity".
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[**] Peter M. Senge: The Fifth Discipline, Chapter 9 "Personal Mastery", p. 171ff. Senge sees the empowerment and responsibility for further development in the individual.
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If a time-critical transformation management project cannot be accomplished by existing management expertise, then a general manager/CEO ad interim experienced in strategy would be the solution.
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Please contact us directly if you need concrete help in change management projects or a managing director/CEO ad interim or a business transformation manager and a well-practiced team with implementation competence.
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