Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Change managementHR strategy

Professional Agenda: Managing change for commercial advantage

by Personnel Today 31 May 2005
by Personnel Today 31 May 2005

Many organisations seem hell bent on continuous change, but at what cost? Change is critical when organisations find themselves at odds with the marketplace – in manufacturing terms, when products are not selling or not achieving the required margins, or in construction, when profits are suffering with the 80-20 rule and losses are occurring or serious risks manifesting themselves.

Organisations that are achieving their targets and producing the forecast levels of shareholder return should be looking towards stability within their operations. If, as many do, they wish to grow their business empires, they should consider acquisitions rather than just organic growth, maintaining the level of earnings via their core business and spending time on rejuvenating a well-priced purchase, which will allow them to improve their return on investment and expand the organisation.

Such acquisitions give the parent company an opportunity to implant its star performers and succession candidates, giving them not only the opportunity to practically improve their skills and competencies, but also to be recognised for fiscal success.

While change can bring many rewards to an organisation in terms of improved revenue and share value, and to successful managers and employees by way of increased compensation/incentivisation and profitability, there can be a downside to constant restructuring: human and mental fatigue.

There is a need for organisations and their executive board members to recognise that many directors and senior managers, while being good at change processes, need to be reintroduced to normal business operations at regular intervals, to recharge their batteries and bring back a semblance of order to their work-life balance.

A small number of directors and managers excel at revitalising businesses, driving profit and ‘sweating’ assets, and could not envisage another way of life. But even these change agents have to be given a safe haven to reinvent themselves and address the balance of life. Organisations that are well used to corporate acquisitions, integration and development have a number of proven processes that hone and improve upon these human assets, following successful completion of assignments or extraction from long-term change programmes. These include:



  • Short interventions in the business school fraternity to spread the gospel of corporate change and coach the would-be chief executives (CEOs) of tomorrow
  • Coaching new CEOs/operations directors in operational situations and acting as mentor or coach
  • Researching new business propositions and arranging due diligence in readiness for others to take over
  • Secondments into other parts of the business to learn new skills and share expertise with their peers.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

The guardians of such resources are usually the chairman or group CEO and the HR director, the latter ensuring that they are nurtured, highly rewarded and kept centre stage.

Stephen Hall
Managing director
Stephen M Hall Associates

Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
HSBC says strike damage minimal
next post
More than half of workers feel burned out

You may also like

CIPD Festival of Work: ‘Wellbeing is not an...

11 Jun 2025

University of Salford launches Better Working Lives cluster

14 May 2025

Why HR burnout is a strategic issue

12 May 2025

Succession planning now ‘more of a priority than...

24 Apr 2025

Four ways HR can maintain trust in uncertain...

23 Apr 2025

High performance is not the preserve of ‘superstar’...

3 Apr 2025

Birmingham bin strikes: major incident declared

1 Apr 2025

What do HR specialists enjoy most about their...

21 Mar 2025

Ben & Jerry’s accuses Unilever for sacking boss...

20 Mar 2025

Employee engagement: Growing disconnect between effort and recognition,...

13 Mar 2025

  • Empowering working parents and productivity during the summer holidays SPONSORED | Businesses play a...Read more
  • AI is here. Your workforce should be ready. SPONSORED | From content creation...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+