| Issue 27 |

Strategy and HR - Part II

Have you formed a new strategic plan that will help you grow and develop? Great! Now “all” you need to do is implement it in your organization. You have to verify that all of the organization’s employees are tuned in to the new plan and working according to it. This is no insignificant matter since it is human nature to resist change. In fact, most attempts to conduct fundamental organizational changes, including new strategic plans, fail precisely due to the resistance of employees and managers to change.

John Kotter, an Organizational Behavior professor at the Harvard Business School, is considered the top expert in the world on organizational changes. Kotter developed a process of eight stages necessary to bring about fundamental organizational change. This process is described below, and it includes clarifications regarding leading strategic change.

1. Declaring crisis and creating a sense of urgency – in order for everyone to understand that it is not possible to continue as before and that change is imperative. Meaning – in order to motivate everyone to change it is necessary to make it clear to everyone that the situation is really not good and that a new strategy must be implemented in order to improve business outcomes (and survive).
2. Establishing a winning coalition – a diverse and multidisciplinary team for leading the process of change. For this to happen, people need to be recruited that influence others in the organization, and that have a personal interest in promoting the change. For example, optimization experts if the strategy focuses on lowering costs, or design buffs if the new strategy focuses on developing esthetic and stylish products. Concurrently, it is also important to map out who is expected to oppose the new strategy and for what reasons, and to plan ahead what answers to provide to these opposers, and how they can also be recruited to the process.
3. Forming a vision – that will illuminate how the organization will appear after the change has been implemented. People also need to see a light at the end of the tunnel and not only the darkness in order to motivate them to act. It is important that the new strategy is presented not only as a plan of action, but also as a clear and exciting picture of a brighter future worth striving towards.
4. Disseminating the vision among all the employees – It is important to repeat the vision over and over again, at every opportunity, and through every possible means (an employee conference, a company newsletter, the Internet, etc.) – in order to communicate it, to win everyone over, and to demonstrate that the management is very committed to it.
5. Delegating authority to all the employees to promote the change – so that every employee can contribute to the vision in his own way. Leadership is meant to show the direction but not how to get there. Each department in the organization needs to set departmental goals that support the vision and the strategy, and to proffer plans of action that will support the attainment of these goals. It is important to stress that goal-oriented management does not necessarily mean that the goals are dictated from above: if everyone understands where the organization is trying to get to, everyone can offer their help to make this progress happen.
6. Accumulating immediate achievements – by focusing on things that are easy to change in the short term, in order to reinforce the supporters of the change, and to discourage the opposers. The areas of the strategic plan that lead to quick and palpable results should be promoted first, for example –executive managers’ pay cuts in an organization that has decided to streamline, or renovating the cafeteria in an organization that has decided to improve employee conditions.
7. Conducting additional, more complex changes –only at the current stage, when more and more employees are being recruited to the change process. It is now important for the organization not to rest on its laurels, and not to suffice with achievements that were attained at the previous stage! For example –a company that decided upon a transition from a local to an international market, should market to more and more countries and not be satisfied with penetrating the French market, as successful as it may be.
8. Developing an organizational culture that preserves the change – even when the change obtained many achievements, it still has opposers, and if the organizational culture and values have not changed, the situation can reverse to its previous state. In order to anchor the change for the long term, it is possible, for example, to replace key people that are still opposed to the new strategy, and to bequeath the CEO position to someone that supports the change.

    

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Ideas for innovation in motorcycle helmets

The following ideas were developed using various thinking tools, and do not exist at present (to the best of our knowledge):

1. A pair of full helmets that fit inside each other (easier to carry and store in the trunk).
2. A helmet that emits color from its exterior as a result of an accident (so that it won’t be used again because it is not safe).
3. An anti-bacterial helmet (to prevent fungus and mold from growing in areas that come into contact with sweat).
4. A fluorescent helmet (entirely coated with a reflector color, to make the driver better seen at night).
5. A helmet with layers of interior lining that can be removed and washed or replaced (remain cleaner for longer).
6. A helmet that has a lock or locking mechanism, which firmly fixes it to the motorcycle (to prevent theft).
7. A helmet with a place for recording the driver’s details (a means of identification that prevents theft, and information saves lives – blood type, allergies, etc.).
8. A helmet with impermeable fabric at the bottom (can be integrated with a wind breaker, and protects the front and back of the neck from rain or sun).
9. A helmet of different sizes, also according to hair thickness (for people with thick hair, straight and thin hair, bald people, etc.).
10. A helmet that has a mini-airbag inside (which supports the back of the neck better during an accident). 

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Speaking Freely

If you have business branches abroad or a lot of business calls with customers abroad, you may very well be looking for a way to save money on long-distance phone calls. All the more so if you tend to speak abroad from your mobile phone, for example when you yourself are abroad with it. A relatively new Internet enterprise that has been taking the world by storm over the last few months, has come to help you with this exact issue. This service is called JAJAH, which makes it possible to make direct calls free of charge or for a nominal fee, from a telephone (land or mobile line) to another phone (land or mobile line) from anywhere in the world.

To start you can try 5 minutes of an international telephone call between regular phones free of charge, at www.jajah.com The process is very simple – you have to enter the telephone number you wish to dial from and the telephone number you wish to dial, and enter when you wish to make the call (for example – immediately!). At the specified time you chose the Jajah servers dispersed all over the world will call your phone and the phone number you wish to dial. You and your telephone partner will simultaneously hear a regular telephone ring, you will answer and speak free of charge! You will undoubtedly be surprised to discover that the sound quality is higher than in regular long-distance calls!

After you have tried the Jajah-mediated call, you can register on their website, pay a small sum (say $30) on your personal or business credit card, and make calls from wherever to wherever you please, for free or at costs lower than regular long-distance charges by approx. 80% or more. For example, telephone calls made from a regular or mobile phone between Jajah subscribers from Israel to the U.S., Canada, China, Singapore and Thailand are free, and also calls between subscribers from Israel to Europe on a regular phone (not a mobile) are free. If you want to call a regular phone (not a mobile) of someone who is not a Jajah subscriber in these countries, you will discover that the rate is less than 4 cents (16 agorot) per minute.

The Jajah site also offers a variety of additional services. For example, you can install an application that makes it possible to dial from a variety of advanced mobile phones directly through Jajah, and to save the bulk of long-distance expenses (for example – when you are traveling with your mobile phone abroad). The Jajah site also has the option of opening a business account and offering visitors to your website a 1-800 button that will connect them to you for free from all over the world (your expense will be very low relative to regular international 1-800 calls). This will naturally enable you closer contact with and the provision of better service to your customers. Jajah are adding services and applications all the time, and you are welcome to check out what’s new on their site.

The Jajah founders’ vision is high-quality telephone calls from anyplace to anyplace, at zero cost. Surprisingly, they are already fulfilling this vision. Try and enjoy! 
 

• For the Jajah site : www.jajah.com