Rosenbluth International: Strategic transformation of a successful enterprise

Successful companies find it exceedingly difficult to change their business strategy radically in response to impending changes in their competitive e nvironment. Here, we analyze how Rosenbluth International, one of the large st travel agencies, was able to accomplish that. Threatened with disintemed iation during the period of drastic restructuring of travel brokerage, the company strategically revised its value proposition. It has divested itself of its leisure travel segment and offered a range of its services on a fee basis to its customers, rather than rely on commissions by the suppliers o f travel services, as it had done previously. This strategic change was ena bled by information systems, several of them highly innovative, which Rosen bluth had used strategically in its prior business initiatives. The paper a nalyzes the management of strategic transition at Rosenbluth International in the light of general theory of organizational resistance to change.