During technology initiatives such as implementing new systems, we seem always to focus on technology or software rather than on the more significant and variable component: change in the organization. Atlantic Monthly recently ran a retrospective on what some of their distinguished contributors had to say about various market-based issues. One contributor was Lester Thurow, a former Dean of the Sloan Business School at MIT and a well-known columnist for Newsweek and The New York Times. His essay was on wealth-building strategies; but I want to share a particularly important excerpt that has wider relevance:
Though unintended I am sure, Thurow’s point is clearly applicable to organizations in the process of implementing new software or processes. He suggests that organizations (societies) must allow for some unpredictability or lack of control while important change is underway. At the same time, for organizations to benefit from such change, a degree of control must be exerted. This means maintaining a delicate balance - another fine role for the Executive Sponsor.
At Burger Consulting, two of the most common causes of failed implementations we see is an unwillingness to let go of old processes and procedures and an insistence that the new system mimic the old. Thurow would suggest that the organization is “not being receptive to chaos.”
Put another way, out-of-the-box thinking - even radical ideas - can and should be encouraged, just not allowed to get out of hand. Implementations need structure, but people implementing change also need room to invent. When you assign a team or person the task of implementing a new system, they need to know what the boundaries are. They also need to embrace and benefit from the chaos that comes with change. You hope they will be creative, and you want to make sure the rest of the organization knows what to expect.
Change is upon everyone in the construction sector from a different direction as well. As I noted in our last newsletter, consolidation and acquisition in our industry is continuing apace - often with its own chaotic effects. Acquisition activity includes Explorer’s recent announcement of plans to acquire the Trueline system. Also, Maxwell Systems, currently responsible for their original product as well as the American Contractor, just acquired Cheetah, the Ft. Collins-based software application for the heavy/highway sector. AutoDesk has completed its acquisition of ConstructWare, and Geac - now renamed as Extensity - was purchased by California-based private equity firm Golden Gate Capital.
BCG certainly sees the necessity of some of this consolidation. But the pace seems a bit brisk, and while some acquisitions make strategic sense, others seem to be value-shopping.
Notwithstanding the motive for these acquisitions, companies that acquired legacy products must now examine how to absorb new customers and create an economical as well as efficient migration path for them. If you are among those running a software application that now has a new owner, you might want to ask that new owner a few questions as you plan for the next several years:
The answers to these questions can help you plan for - and benefit - from change. And if you need to discuss how to adapt systems, software, or processes to take advantage of change in your own markets, feel free to give us a call.
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