6 drivers of change

I thought I’d write a short post providing some immediate reflections from an interesting panel discussion I f read about  today.

The panel, titled “Innovation: Change Happens,” featured Dow Corning Chairman, CEO and President Stephanie Burns, Eastman Kodak President and COO Phil Faraci, and Procter & Gamble Chairman and CEO A.G. Lafley. It was part of the Newspaper Association of America and American Society of News Editors “Capital Conference 2008.”

Each of the panelists provided a short account of their respective company’s change efforts and answered audience questions. The six key points that seemed to be in common across the three companies were:

• The need for a crisis or some kind of “burning platform” to motivate transformational change
  
• A clear vision and strategy … that allows room for iteration
  
• A recognition that transformation is a multi-year journey
  
• A need to put the customer or consumer in the center of the transformation equation
  
• The critical importance of demonstrating to skeptics that different actions can lead to different results
  
• The need to over-communicate to employees, customers, stakeholders, and shareholders