Manage change from the top
Any kind of organizational transition is easier with buy-in at all levels of the company. In order to get buy-in from the employees on the front lines, you and your management team need to come up with a plan that appeals to employees logically and gives them some form of incentive for buying in.
At Tata Technologies — the $300 million U.S.-based arm of Singapore-headquartered business conglomerate Tata — reasoning and incentives were two of the first elements Harris helped put in place before presenting the 2005 acquisition strategy to employees.
“As part of the change management, we really looked at all distinct things,” Harris says. “One is explaining the rationale. Two is ensuring that the appropriate incentives are in place. Three, we try to make sure that competency is there to live up to the expectations. Four, we try to position and establish role models and objectives for the things that we’re trying to put in place.
“If we look at those four groups, I personally spent a lot of time communicating the rationale, being the cheerleader for the change and reinforcing the ambitions of the organization. You need to spend a lot of time on the rationale, communicating why you believe the change is necessary and why you believe it’s important for the market and, by association, your future success.”
Incentives were tied to a balanced scorecard program instituted with the help of outside consultants, which helped Tata Technologies’ leaders measure progress against set objectives. All executive compensation was awarded through the scorecard system.
The competency objective was tied to an educational support initiative, which helped coach people within the company to become example setters and role models for the acquisition initiative. Those people were then strategically placed within the Tata Technologies structure to keep fertilizing the seeds initially sowed throughout the company by Harris and his leadership team.
“That’s been the case particularly in areas of the business we’re looking to build,” Harris says. “We’ve brought in a lot of educational support from the outside, working with outside companies. When we were able to jettison some of the conscripts in the early part of the two companies coming together, we were able to backfill those positions with people who have the right type of capabilities and are committed to what we are trying to achieve.”
Once the initial communication strategy is rolled out, the burden falls on you to keep the communication cascading. You need to constantly reinforce your initial messages, or the change culture you’ve planned for will never grow.
Harris says the daily and weekly reinforcements have to be delivered in an easily digested form so the message doesn’t become garbled or lost as it cascades through the ranks.
“You need to continue to focus on your values and what you stand for as a company,” he says. “In our communications, we tell everyone that we are committed to building one company, committed to positioning the parochial interests of the different regional organizations as secondary to the interests of the organization as a whole. We are a services organization, so, of course, exceeding customer expectations is a critical success factor for us.
“I will talk about the nuances associated with the different messages in different regions when I visit them, but there is never an attempt to confuse or try to distract the message at all.”