Change management strategies and implementation

¶ … DSS Consulting and their recent shift in business model. This happenstance came about because the founders of the company moved on to other endeavors. Indeed, the changeover is necessary because the founders were the driving force of the business and where their customers came from and their departure requires an entirely new business model and business priorities. The case study is mostly a tracking of the dialog and actions between Meg Cooke and Chris Peterson. There is a large project that is part of the changeover that is worked on for six months. However, Meg calls a clandestine meeting and the project is quickly shuttered. While Chris is left with a choice between keeping her current role and returning to being a functional employee in IT, neither choice is attractive given the abrupt about-face by Meg and what either choice could lead to in the long run.

Presentation of Facts

As noted in the introduction, there was a massive amount of leveraging and time spent on a changeover relating to budgeting and scheduling. The stage set at the beginning of the case study is an upcoming meeting that is to happen tomorrow after six months are spent on said initiative. To be sure, a meeting like this would put someone off-guard. When the meeting finally does occur, Meg sets up a rendezvous at a coffee shop off-site at the last minute and bluntly informs Chris that the project is over and she either needs to accept that and then move on with her current position or move back to the functional information technology role. The new business model and the abrupt about-face would make either choice a potentially messy one.

Identification of the Key Issues

There are two main issues to be assessed and looked at for this report. The first is that the departure of the DSS founders has led to the necessity of using a new business model and customer base. The reason for this was that a lot of the business up to that point was gained through the contacts and network of the founders. Since said founders are stepping aside and bringing in new people to run the business, this means that a new business model and customer base are going to be needed. This is because there apparently cannot be a transfer of those contacts to the people that now run the company.

The other issue was an eventually scrapping of the scheduling/budgeting plan altogether. One very troubling factor that suggests this was less than wise was that the decision-makers and people necessary for project buy-in were not all that engaged in terms of feedback and participation in the project. This is a stunning detail to center on given that the project was eventually scrapped. This would suggest that there were grumblings behind the scenes or that the lack of engagement somehow led to Meg deciding it was the wrong direction to take. Another interesting fact about the process is that the functional silo area that Meg offers to Chris as an alternative to keeping her current role was to have been scrapped or at least changed as part of the change process. This leads to either choice offered at the end of the report being a dicey and chaotic proposition.

Listing & Evaluation of Alternative Courses of Action