In Leading Change John examines the efforts of more than 100 companies to remake themselves into better competitors. He identifies the most common mistakes leaders and managers make in attempting to create change and offers an eight-step process to overcome the obstacles and carry out the firm's agenda.
"Leading change provides valuable insights that will benefit any organisation contemplating or undertaking major changes to position itself to compete successfully in the global marketplace today and into the 21st century." Stanley C Gault, Chairman of the Board, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company.
"Leading change has tremendous value. The ideas are easily transferable to any company, large or small. It has helped me with my own management style, and it can help others" Andrew S Bluestone, President, Selective Benefits Group. The author is perhaps the business world's favourite guru on the subject of change. His book Leading Change (1996) has become a classic, with its eight-step programme for managing change effectively. Kotter is not calling for businesses to be led by headless chickens. He advocates firmness of purpose, not frenzy. He uses the phrase "urgent patience" to describe what he means: "acting each day with a sense of urgency but having a realistic view of time. It means recognising that five years may be needed to attain important and ambitious goals, and yet coming to work each day committed to finding every opportunity to make progress toward those goals." Indeed, this sort of attitude has helped Toyota turn itself into the most successful carmaker in the world, and Tesco into one of the world's most powerful retailers.
This succinct book has a gentle, unhurried tone, but its message is insistent, relentless and urgent.
Stern (2008), No Need to Panic, But Keep It Urgent, Financial Times, September 2008.
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