Eminent guru Kotter's celebrated workshop 'to create sense of urgency'
Orchid Slingshot, a consultancy focused on organisation and people development, is introducing "Leading Bold Change", an interactive workshop created by "guru of change" John P Kotter, to the Thai market.
To inaugurate the new course, the firm has invited Chutinant Bhirombhakdi, executive vice president of Boon Rawd Brewery, to share his experience in leading the successful transformation at Thailand's 77-year-old brewery during the launch event tomorrow at the InterContinental Hotel in Bangkok.
Managing director Apiwut Pimolsaengsuriya said Orchid Slingshot has seen the need to introduce Kotter's famous workshop to the local market because various studies have indicated that most change programmes have failed to deliver expected results. Moreover, a survey conducted a few months ago by the Personnel Management Association of Thailand has unveiled "change management" as the top challenge during the next three years, according to Thai human resource professionals.
"First of all, Kotter's name is certainly 'marketable'. Second, most other change [management] curricula will tell 'what', some will say how, but none will give [you] the 'sequence' of how to implement it step by step. This one is like a 'recipe', and thus [we] believe Thais will like it," said Apiwut, explaining why his firm chose to introduce the change management training course to the Thai market.
Orchid Slingshot consulting partner Thun Thamrongnawasawat said "Leading Bold Change" was the only training curriculum developed by Kotter, the world-renowned professor at Harvard Business School who authored many best-selling books including "Our Iceberg is Melting", which offers eight steps for organisations to lead a successful change:
-Create a sense of urgency
-Build a guiding team
-Develop the right vision
-Communicate for buy-in
-Empower others to act
-Produce short-term wins
-Don't let up
-Create a new culture
Kotter's research has found that half of firms have failed because of the first step alone - their employees did not feel the heat to change, he said.
Apiwut said "creating a sense of urgency" is the most difficult step because everyone understands the need to change, but not the need to change "now".
"This is especially true for successful organisations. Khun Sigve Brekke [executive vice president, and head of Telenor Group Asian Operations] once said change is easier to implement when an organisation is successful, but most organisations can't do it when they're still successful," Apiwut said.
In Boonrawd's case, the company lost a lot of market share before it embarked on a change. And notably, the brewery has seized back its market leadership, through the new brand Leo, while its old Singha brand has less than 10 per cent of share left today, he said.
Similarly, Thun said the "penguins" in Kotter's book have survived through living "the nomadic way of life", which means not sticking to one permanent platform, but wandering around and always seeking for a new "iceberg".
Apiwut said some books suggest companies to hire "sharks" to keep alerting everyone else in the organisation. Nevertheless, research has found the average tenure of CEOs in foreign countries has been reduced to two and a half years at present, and thus most organisations have become accustomed to change already.
"Some believe, if you want to change, you have to bring in an outsider, because they believe an insider has a shared history - these are my old friends, those are my brothers, sisters - and thus he tends to be compromised."
There is no record of the tenure of Thai CEOs, but it is certainly longer than the foreign standard of two and a half years. Nevertheless, Thai CEOs' average term is mostly likely to be shortened in the future, he said.
Apiwut said the "Leading Bold Change" workshop was expected to provide Orchid Slingshot Bt10 million of additional revenue during its first year of introduction.
The company's first target group of customers is its existing pool of 300 clients, including commercial banks.
Thun, a former consultant with Boston Consulting Group and the first Thai certified to conduct the "Leading Bold Change" workshop, will facilitate the first public programme for the change management course from September 1-2.