Part C: Change Management
General Remarks
All assignment questions are based on the IBM Case (supplemented with this assignment).
Please use the provided literature for your analysis.
Assignment Questions Part Change Management
Ginni Rommety´s new role as CEO at $100 billion a year tech giant presents a catalogue of
challenges to her leadership role: Do you share this view? If so critically evaluate some of the
complexities and paramount challenges that she faces as she attempts to transform IBM´s
tech glory?
Secondly, as a leading consultant how would you identify IBM´s effectiveness and efficiency
balance? Is the business model sustainable in its current form and what recommendations
would you propose for the future? Discuss!
Expectations & Supporting Notes
Please represent your independent degree of thinking:
– Briefly explain why the chosen models are the most appropriate for your analysis and
what possible alternatives would have been there
– Explain why you have chosen each working paper for your analysis out of all =
literature review
– Reinforce your content by Author´s own illustrations
– Draw an issue tree, strategy maps (if applicable to assignment question)
Use of literature:
– Harvard referencing style (e.g. Kotter (1996) argues that… Full citation will then be used in
the reference page. For example: Kotter, J. (1996). Leading Change, Harvard Business Review
Vol. 8 Issue 1, 234-240)
– Only scientific resources: 1. working papers (Please use the papers in the attached file and
use those for your analysis) 2. books of well-known authors (please list the EAN, ISBN
separately)
Case Study (break into sections) e.g.
– Abstract (bring a „helicopter view“ of the concepts that will be discussed in the main
body of your paper)
– Introduction (please quote in introduction)
– Analysis: apply applicable concepts to build your foundation for arguments
– How? Use literature to build your baseline theories (papers attached)
– Use of models, frameworks, illustrations to reinforce content
– Measure using figures and KPIs
– Analysis and less narrative (cause and effect relationships)
– Conclusion (What is he best for the business)
– References
Please consider in your analysis:
1) Abstract / Introduction (prepare the reader what to expect inside the paper)
– Bring a „helicopter view“ on the concept of change
– Bring in some concepts that will be discussed in the main body of your paper
2) Complexities and underlying challenges of the firm being discussed
– What was the existing business model?
– Why change the model?
– What impact will this have on stakeholders?
– The imperative of cost of change needs attention
– Examine the role of leadership in driving the change effort (consider the leadership style,
cognitive traits, competences of the leadership leading the change)
3) Scale up on why the transformation was a success or not (measure)?
4) Strategic recommendations and proposing a best fit model
Further considerations:
– Examine the critical challenges that happened within the company as a result of change:
1) We need to look at how agile the company was?
2) Did they have a strategic plan in terms of strategic change?
3) What was the leadership site?
4) Change management course, but you can´t leave leadership out of this.
– Discusses the leadership style, be as critical as you can (what she was doing… was it in
the interest in terms of creating stakeholder value?)
– She was spending big on acquisitions (If you continue pumping money into acquisitions
as an effort to create a new bust operating business model, investors want to see a
return on capital, they want to see a return on investments here)
– Acquisitions: this kind of strategic actions related to change; it takes time to bring back
returns. You don’t acquire a company and expect profits by next week. There must be 1.
Integration,2. realignment 3. Post stream alignment -> high complexity
Finalise:
– Cause and effect relationships e.g. the reason leadership recommended was to reduce
the portfolio of this company because we are trying to catch some cost savings, which
means that this will translate into better KPIs. -> managerial reasoning to analyse Why
they took that course of action.
You are entitled to practical options e.g. “Whatever she was doing was not the best for the business”,
then you need to come up with strategic recommendations, always must leave room for
recommendations.
Case study: there were doing a good job but there was something missing (you must find what can
be supposed here)