THE PROCESS OF MARKET-DRIVEN TRANSFORMATION

To compete successfully for the future, corporations need to become pr oactively market-driven. How to achieve this is the subject of this ar ticle in which the author takes readers through the essential overlapp ing stages of the market-driven transformation process with guidelines as to what needs to be done at each stage using examples from industr y to demonstrate. She shows how, although the ideal is for a corporati on to move fast, paradoxically it's easier to get people to undergo th e changes when things begin to deteriorate. How to handle this involve s finding triggers to create 'strategic discomfort' and then use new s ets of tools and mechanisms which have the power to get people to thin k differently and build new capabilities and market-driven practices. Because people take on change at different rates, pockets of the organ ization will be operating at different speeds during the transformatio n-those out front will act as role models for the rest so at the new w ays of working can become institutional. The job of the corporate lead er is not only to focus and lead the market-driven transformation thro ugh the various states but also to pull together the various initiativ es and projects into one cohesive and sustainable result.