The challenges facing Delta Pacific

            Delta Pacific (DPC) has found itself gradually losing its primary product’s (computer hardware) market share. The reason for this negative development is globalization. In turn, globalization paved the way for free trade and low-cost overseas labor and products. It is against this backdrop that toward the end of the 1990s, DPC leadership noticed that it was no longer untenable for it to compete with cheaper foreign products. Hitherto, DPC had been setting higher prices for its products to match their superior quality. However, current dynamics render the tradition of higher pricing untenable. Foreign-made products were now either surpassing or matching DPC’s mark of quality.

Even when redefining its product, some of the sales representatives found difficulty accommodating the changes. Some of the representatives sought after alternative opportunities elsewhere. The time being taken to train employees was also a double-edged sword. As the training sessions helped employees get accustomed to their new roles, employees were spending more time in the classroom than in the field with their clients. This means that DPC could not generate the targeted amount of revenue. These pitfalls usually occur during organizational restructuring. However, what makes DPC’s case unique is that its decline and its attendant slow returns were more protracted than anticipated.

Change initiatives that would be most effective to implement within this organization

One of the change initiatives that would most effectively help DPC to implement these changes is the use of a performance measurement system for the entire change initiative. DPC must have an empirical and verifiable way of measuring performance against time, finance, manpower and skill-impartation. According to Naslund and Norrman (2019), the measuring of performance may necessitate the use of key performance indicators (KPI). For instance, DPC should have shrunk its employee training sessions to a specific time and set a particular period in which trained employees should meet newly set performance targets.

The type of change leaders to be put in place

In addition to the use of KPI to ensure effective implementation of the changes in DPC, there should be change leadership in place. One of the components of change leadership that should be salient to the structural changes is change management. The change management would help the firm transform the creation of people issues (such as the development of new capabilities and skills and structural changes) on a case by case, reactive and proactive fashion, to boost the morale, speed and efficiency of the personnel.

Conversely, DPC may also need to consider the services and input of change analyst(s). The change analyst would employ his intense technical knowledge and expertise on subject matter to impart an understanding of technical and business matters and positively impact proposed change. To attain this aim, the change analyst is to: provide DPC with technical information; issue expertise on subject-matter, to foster an understanding of the effects of the proposed changes; and to give DPC recommendations to the firm’s change accessories (Janich, 2016).

The departments, areas, and stakeholders each leader will be responsible for

The change analyst should preside over the project team or project management department. This position helps them evaluate and direct (new) projects, regardless of the departments the change analyst is in and the department involved. Hierarchically, the change analyst should report to a specific director. This way, the change analyst can report directly to the director guiding the change process while working well with employees at all organizational levels.

The change manager can operate from different portfolios such as the business change manager or strategic manager. This is because the roles of the change manager are mainly benefits-focused. Hierarchically, the change manager should work alongside (not under) the program manager to ensure the target program comes to fruition.

Where each change leader will be most effective

As already stated, the change analyst is likely to be more effective in the project management department, and the change manager, in business change or strategic management.

The roles each change leader needs to play at their level of influence

Some of the roles the change analyst may discharge to help turn DPC around may include: managing and implementing change processes for the projects within the program, developing and delivering effective change reports and plans in collusion with Change Lead; working collaboratively with operational business groups to illumine understanding on present and future business processes and state.

Some of the duties the change manager may discharge to help turn DPC around may include: liaising with the programs manager to designate projects that further DPC’s benefits and target outcomes; identifying, qualifying and monitoring a specific program’s target benefits and outcomes; upholding the sponsoring group’s interests and ensuring the program meets them.

Leadership Structure Plan: Creating a Leadership Structure Plan that includes:

At least three change leader positions to be put in place for the change initiative.

There should be a program manager operating alongside the two aforementioned posts (change analyst and change manager). The change manager and the program manager may be hierarchically the same, but functionally different.

Description of each change leader’s roles and responsibilities

The roles and responsibilities of the programs manager may include: organization of activities and programs that further the objectives and mission of DPC; creating and directing long-term objectives; creating new programs to guide DPC’s strategic direction and developing operating plan and budget for the program. The roles and responsibilities of change analysts and change managers have already been dispelled.

Accounting for departments they will lead

The program manager can lead the project or programs management department. He would guide the department to create and ensure the programs he has created direct DPC towards long-term objectives. The suitable offices for the change analyst and change manager have already been discussed.

References

Janich, N. (2016). Facilitator withdrawal from organizational change initiatives: a review of          strategies and guidelines. Group Facilitation: A Research & Applications Journal, 13,            43-55.

Naslund, D. & Norrman, A. (2019). A performance measurement system for change initiatives:    An action research study from design to evaluation.

Business Process Management Journal, 25(7), 1647-1672.