Mobile Applications - Guide to Cloud Computing for Business and Technology Managers - page 471

future, that is, by aligning themselves to achieve high performance today,
enterprises often make it difficult to vary, so that they can have high perfor-
mance tomorrow.
When the environment is changing slowly or predictably, these models are
adequate. However, as the rate of change increases with increasing global-
ization, technological breakthroughs, associative alliances, and regulatory
changes, enterprises have to look for greater agility, flexibility, and innova-
tion from their companies. Instead of pursuing strategies, structures, and
cultures that are designed to create long-term competitive advantages, com-
panies must seek a string of temporary competitive advantages through an
approach to organization design that assumes change is normal. With the
advent of the Internet and the accompanying extended virtual market spaces,
enterprises are now competing based on intangible assets like identity, intel-
lectual property, ability to attract and stick to customers, and their ability
to organize, reorganize frequently, or organize differently in different areas
depending on the need. Thus, the need for changes in management and
organization is much more frequent, and excellence is much more a function
of possessing the ability for changes. Enterprises need to be built around
practices that encourage change, not thwart it. Instead of having to create
change efforts, disrupt the status quo, or adapt to change, enterprises should
be built for change.
To meet the conflicting objectives of performing well against current set
of environmental demands and changing themselves to face future business
environments, enterprises must engender two types of changes: the natural
process of evolution, or what we will call strategic adjustments, and strategic
reorientations:
1. Strategic adjustments involve the day-to-day tactical changes
required to bring in new customers, make incremental improve-
ments in products and services, and comply with regulatory require-
ments. This type of change helps fine-tune current strategies and
structures to achieve short-term results; it is steady, incremental, and
natural. This basic capability to evolve is essential if an enterprise is
to survive to thrive.
2. Strategic reorientation involves altering an existing strategy and, in
some cases, adopting a new strategy. When the environment evolves
or changes sufficiently, an organization must significantly adjust
some elements of its strategy and the way it executes that strategy.
More often than not, enterprises have to face a transformational
change that involves not just a new strategy but a transformation
of the business model that leads to new products, services, and cus-
tomers and requires markedly new competencies and capabilities.
However, operationally, all these changes can be seen as manifes-
tations of the basic changes only differing in degrees and multiple
dimensions.