A635.8.3.RB - Transformational Strategies

As we gleaned, strategic change management seeks to align an organization’s strategy resources and structure to fit a particular environment (Brown, 2011). Jim “Mattress Mack” clearly saw a need for a strategic change and he acted upon that need for change at his company. In learning about strategic change during this week’s reading we are able to identify that Jim “Mattress Mack” sought out to solve technical, political and cultural problems that were impacting performance at his company. For example, implementing something as simple as an ensured touch point with every customer that walked in the door, something that prior to the change management strategy was not prioritized by the salesman, so much so that they thought it was a waste of time to get individual customer emails for a follow-up touch point ("Influencer | Gallery Furniture Video Case Study", 2012). Additionally, Jim provided technical training for his employees as many of them were computer illiterate. Jim also ensured that there was a company wide cultural shift that focused on personal health and fitness which in return drove down Jim’s insurance and benefits costs ("Influencer | Gallery Furniture Video Case Study", 2012).

Stanley McChrystal shared his experience of the military and when he underwent transformational change. Contrary to Jim “Mattress Mack”, Stanley was in an environment that would be recognized as strong culture within the spectrum of relative strength of corporate cultures (Brown, 2011). Stanley spoke about the engrained military culture and how he himself gained rank and leadership status he listened and became more transparent as leader, which was against the old cultural norm (McChrystal, 2011). In both of these stories we learn of transformational change, and we get to hear about the success that they saw because a strong leader was present in both examples.

References

Brown, D.R. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.  

Influencer | Gallery Furniture Video Case Study. (2012, September 17). Retrieved from https://youtu.be/E20RW75Fhu4.

McChrystal, S. (2011). Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/stanley_mcchrystal/transcript.