What is Strategic Change? Types, Steps, Examples 

When it comes to executing strategic changes in your organization, allows businesses and organizations to achieve their goals and objectives. There are different types of strategic changes and various steps involved in the execution phase. Today, we’ll discuss what is strategic change; types, various steps involved, and examples.

What is Strategic Change? 

Strategic change is the process of transforming a company from the current state to the desired state in order to gain a competitive edge and achieve organizational objectives. It comprises developing an organizational plan, executing changes, gaining a competitive edge, and achieving organizational goals. However, it requires changes in the company’s processes, structures, policies, and procedures.

Usually, it is the responsibility and duty of executives and top management to launch strategic changes within the organization. When the change leader recognizes the company’s goals and objectives, they should launch the change management process in a systematic and structured manner.

Types of Strategic Change 

Some of the main types of strategic change are as follows;

Innovation

Businesses and organizations implement strategic changes through innovation and creativity. It comprises employing knowledge, skills, and resources to develop something new. However, it allows businesses and organizations to meet organizational demands relevant to the changing environment.

Often, developing some type of innovative product requires heavy investment in research and development. Experts in the research and development department spend a lot of time experimenting with various types of ideas. However, it consists of a lot of risks because not all of your tested ideas succeed, many would fail and it would cost the company.

Reengineering

Reengineering comprises redesigning organizational processes, structures, systems, and methodologies in order to amplify performance. Redesigning organizational culture, technology, and strategies is also part of reengineering. For instance, companies could promote inter-departmental coordination among various departments.

Restructuring

It is the process of reorganizing various elements of the organization in order to gain a competitive edge. Usually, businesses and organizations restructure their chain of command, and hierarchical levels, and restructure various departments. It could be in the form of decreasing the total number of departments and increasing the coordination among them.

Steps in Implementing the Strategic Change 

Some of the main steps involved in the strategic change management process are as follows;

Recognizing the Scope of Change

While developing the strategic change plan, companies should recognize the necessary changes. Sometimes, those necessary changes are easily recognizable like your competitors have launched a new product that is attracting the attention of customers. The company’s leadership should launch strategic changes in order to stay ahead of the competition. If the organization is dealing with the problem of cutting costs, then downsizing and restructuring are the most suitable options for them.

I-SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis is a great analytical tool for businesses and organizations. It would help companies to analyze internal strengths and weaknesses, and external opportunities and threats. The analysis allows companies to capitalize on their strengths and deal with their threats.

Analyzing Stakeholders

The stakeholder analysis helps the company to know the roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders. While developing a strategic change plan, it is significant to recognize how the changes would impact the internal and external stakeholders of the company.

You should prioritize the company’s stakeholders based on their roles, responsibilities, and influence. Prioritizing allows you to see how much you should involve them in the company’s communication channel.

Different stakeholders have got different needs and motivations in the company. You should conduct a survey and interview to know about their emotional and financial interest in the change initiative.

Sparking Change Initiative

After analyzing the interest of stakeholders, it is now time to convince and motivate the company’s stakeholders to accept the change and make it happen. You can take various types of steps to ignite the spark of change in them. Some of them are as follows;

• Creating a sense of urgency
• Developing a powerful change coalition
• Communication changes
• Anticipating
• Updating

Building Support

It is significant to communicate the change plan across the organization to let them know that the change is necessary. In order to affirm your point, you should get some influential stakeholders on your side. Employees and team members would participate in the change program when they have the support of the management during the change process. In order to get their support, you should conduct an open two-way debate and encourage them to share their views and strategies.

Developing Support Network

The implementation of a change program could go much smoother if you have got a change management network and team. The team comprises those individuals that have got skills and expertise to implement changes. It would become a part of the network and they would communicate with various stakeholders of the company to make sure that they understand the transition plans and its goals.

Some of the key members of the change network are as follows;

• Change Agent
• Targets
• Advocates
• Sponsors

Creating Change Management Plan

After recognizing the necessary changes and the network, you should create a plan and design various activities. The management plan gives direction to your team members like what type of actions they should take during the change program. Some of the main elements of the change management plan are as follows;

• Objectives that you want to achieve
• Scope of change that you want to launch
• Activities you should perform to reach your goals
• Required tools and resources to meet your targets
• Specific timeline and deadline for the completion of various tasks and activities

Recognizing Issues

The execution of a change plan won’t always go as planned, disruption and resistance are bound to happen. You should have a contingency plan to deal with various types of extraneous circumstances. If potential issues come up, then your plan should be flexible enough to make some adjustments relevant to the circumstance.

For instance, if your team is fearful that the changes would badly impact their roles and responsibilities; then you should carefully listen to their concerns. You should reassure them that you have the plan to deal with various types of changes, and that implementation of the change plan is necessary.

Change Impact Evaluation

After implementing the change plan, you should carefully evaluate the performance to analyze the effectiveness of the change program. The best method is to contrast both pre and post changes situations to see the differences. If the difference is positive, then it means that the changes have been effective. Now, the company should implement similar types of changes across the organization at a mass scale.

Examples of Strategic Change 

Newspaper Publisher

A newspaper publisher has realized the fact that the sale of newspaper is decreasing. The consumer market analysis showed them that many people read newspaper plans. Now, they decide to shift their newspaper platform online and digitalization and make it a paid subscription platform. Their plan requires them to bring some structural changes within the organization like layoff the existing sellers of newspapers; hiring the tech staff to make the company’s operations online.

Automotive Manufacturer

An automobile manufacturing company has realized that its competitors are selling electric vehicles. In order to stay ahead of the competition, the company decided to launch electric vehicle models. It demands the company to design and manufacture electric vehicles and launch them in the market. If the company wants to win the competition, then it has to invest in the research and development department.

Conclusion: What is Strategic Change? Types, Steps, Examples 

After an in-depth study of what is strategic change; its various types; steps involved in the lamentation, and examples; we have realized that change management is highly significant for businesses and organizations. If you are learning about strategic changes, then you should keep in mind the abovementioned types, steps, and examples.