MANAGING FOR SOCIETY by Sanoy Jc. Suerte

Reprinted with permission is the article from Sanoy Suerte posted in The Manila Times on September 16, 2008

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MANAGING FOR SOCIETY By Sanoy Jc. Suerte
Managing strategic change

Change is ubiquitous. It is happening at a rapid and dizzying pace. While it is always around us, we sometimes ignore the fact that things are changing faster than our ability to cope with change. Why then do people and organizations lag behind the pace of change? It all boils down to lack of appreciation for the magnitude of change and the pace at hand. This is unfortunate. Winning in a changing environment will spring from organizational and individual capabilities in the areas of speed, responsiveness, agility, learning capacity and competence.

Change is not a one-time occurrence, as we already know in business. In fact the old adage, “that the only permanent thing in this world is change” has time and again been proven correct. What then, if change continuously bombards a business enterprise? Needless to say, there is also a need for the business enterprise to continuously rebuild and improve its capacity to adjust to strategic changes. It means that it should be able to adapt to the need for a change. How can we do this? Seemingly easy! You think so? We simply observe and learn from the leading business enterprises. A lot of things that they do are actually relevant to strategic change capacity building. Things that make the entire organization move with speed, become responsive to change, make the organization agile to required changes in plans, make the organization a learning organization, and acquire a never yielding level of competence at doing what is needed in order to survive the severe business environment.

Do we as leaders of the business enterprise anticipate the next change in the market? Of course, we try to do that. But do we make sure our boat or the firm we manage is strong enough to withstand the test of that drastic demand for strategic change? Can the entire armada under your watch act in unison to survive the onslaught of a continuing change?

When a company flounders, it is not that the strategy or the decisions made are entirely wrong. More often than not, it is likely facing the impossible feat of asking a sumo wrestler to make a sprint like the fastest track and field athlete. Your organization may not have the capability to do that as yet, and is ill prepared for an event of that sort. It is therefore a must that every company desirous to excel in a fast changing environment, be made capable to change just as fast or faster than the events. How do we do this? Like an athlete at the Olympic Games, it calls for practice, practice, practice. Prepare, prepare, prepare. Strengthen, strengthen and strengthen your inner self. Are you now tracking your performance record in managing change, like an athlete does to beat his record time? Well, you better be doing it. You may be nowhere near the desired objective and have a lot of catching up to do as yet.

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Sanoy JC Suerte is a DBA student at the Ramon V. del Rosario Sr. Graduate School of Business, College of Business and Economics, De La Salle University – Manila. He is currently the Utilities Operations Manager of Steel Corporation in Batangas; and a Research Consultants Director of Suerte Jatropha Ventures. He can be emailed at sanysue@lycos.com.