Kotter's 8 Step Approach

Kotter's 8 Step Approach Name: Institution: Introduction Running a business in the 21st century is not business as usual, there are more complex challenges, as the race to economic stability is no longer as straightforward as it was decades ago. There is a need to remain innovative at every turn of events. Most businesses start on the right foot, but as time goes by; the business dies off on its tracks. Every organization has a culture, which drives all aspects of the business. This culture needs a change, as long as a company wants to continually to create growth. Organizations spend a lot of their hard-earned money in a bid to improve performance (Coutts, 2012). There are programs and books in the market that promise a quick fix to all the problems that a company may be facing. These solutions do not work for long and are a waste of resources, while the organizations go back the drawing board to draft a new strategy. Change is a gradual process that takes time and practice, as John Kotter illustrates in his approach to change for any organization that are pursuing change (Scheid, 2012). Having dedicated much of his time to study success and failure in businesses, Kotter’s approach clearly illustrates that, there are no quick fixes to change. The approach requires any organization to take time through the various phases not skipping either, as this will lead to detrimental results (Mind tools, 2012). Company overview Louis Kane and Ron Shaich founded Panera Bread back in the year 1981 as Au Bon Pain Co. prospering along the east coast throughout the eighty’s and the ninety’s becoming a dominant operator in the bakery category. The company has a single goal, which is making great bread. This is in line with the company’s mission; providing a loaf of bread to every arm. The company takes a keen interest in customer satisfaction by crating their products according to the tastes and preferences in the market. The company is widely recognized for its outstanding performance, as recently named the casual dining brand of the year by Harris Poll EquiTrend. Diagnosis The company has no doubt been doing relatively well; this is evident from the recent recognition it has been enjoying. With more than 1500 bakery cafes in more than 40 states, it is no mean achievement. This is not the end for Panera, and there is the need to grow even further to the rest of the states and across continental bounders. More so, there is the need to improve the profits while still maintaining and developing further the customer friendliness. Using Kotter’s approach, the company will realize the change it needs along with the growth required. To achieve this, every phase of change will have to run its full course. Skipping through the phases to rush growth will lead losses and a waste of resources. Kotter's 8 Step Approach Change in most cases comes up when there is eminent danger of vulnerability (Scheid, 2012). Same case in business, if the company officials notice a culture they have may lead to loss; this is will spark them into action. These losses may include struggling financially, loosing employees and diminishing turnover, among others (Coutts, 2012). As such, it is going to create the urgency to make changes in fear of business making losses. Kotter in his study of company’s cultures found out that most of them do not create the right amount of urgency that would jam start the company employees to act. Without the right mix of motivation, the bound to be stuck or a long time even with many resources at its disposal. Most company officials underestimate how hard it can get trying to move people out of their comfort zones (Coutts, 2012). Changing a trend that the company has been practicing for quite some time is always easier saying it than doing it. It is therefore, critical that the company officials express the magnitude of the threat to the rest of the staff to create the right degree of urgency. According to Kotter, the sense of urgency is never enough until 75% of the company staff have agreed to inevitable change. Panera Bread can achieve this by having open discussions with the staff to sensitize them on the current completion in the market, low earnings and other indicators that are relevant to the company. Sometime it works better if the company outsources this advice from consulting firms that can give a better insight to the bigger picture. If they do not believe their management team, they will easily relate with an outsider, creating the desired impression (Scheid, 2012). As stated earlier, change does not occur overnight, it takes time. After creating urgency in the company, not all the staff is drawn to the idea as fast, some take time to think through the proposed forms this change will affect. This calls for a coalition that is strong enough to guide the process of change in its early stages (Scheid, 2012). In the case of Panera, which is quite a sizable company, using groups of staff members that believe in the idea will work best. Selecting the right candidates is crucial, as these will have to people truly committed to the company’s growth. Some of the employees will commit to the company’s goals only if their jobs are at risk, as such, it is critical that the management is keen on the selection list. Those selected should have enormous influence on their colleagues, since they are going to be the crusaders of change to the rest of the staff (Coutts, 2012). Change will not take place if there is not a clear picture of what the company is changing into. Creating the vision brings out the roadmap to that change. Where vision is lacking, there is the tendency to skip through some of the steps in the change process. It eliminates the ambiguity of letting go all the old habits and adopting new ones (Mind tools, 2012). Panera Bread Company should create a vision to the staff, of the expected results. Creating a vision can take several channels to achieve it, which include authoritarian, consensus or charismatic. In the case of Panera, most of its staff is skilled; therefore using charismatic approach will work more favorably. Authoritarian approach works best when most of the employees are not skilled, and it will take too much effort explaining to them how changes will work, considering in most cases these kinds of employees are not permanent. Creating a vision by means of a consensus is more difficult as there is a...