Kotters Eight-Step Model - Assignment Example

A Case Study on Kotter’s Eight Step Model al affiliation: Introduction Change is said to be the one constant of life (Erskine, 2013). In current climates, change and adaptation to change defines the success or failure of a company. This is a phenomenon that cannot be ignored. There are also steps that are to be undertaken to help with smoothening this change. There are many theories regarding how effective change can be managed. The change can either be in a few processes in the workings of the company, or an entire overhaul of the system. Either way, a methodology is required to appropriately carry out the change process. This analysis of Simba Safaris Ltd is done using the Kotter’s model. It will break down the steps as they are and propose a change process for this tour company. Company Overview Simba Safari Tours is a tour company located in both Tanzania and Kenya. It is currently one of the leading luxury safari companies in the East Africa region. It is known for providing luxury tours specializing in Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar. The company is family owned by the Dharamshi Bhimani family. They began the company in 1969 and boast over 40 years experience in the field of luxury tours (Simba Safaris). It has its head offices located in Arusha, Tanzania. It also has offices in Nairobi, Kenya and Zanzibar. The company has a staff of over 70 people working dedicatedly in the three offices which are staffed 365 days a year, day and night. Most of these employees have 12 years experience in the field and are efficient. The Simba Safaris are popular mainly for their luxury safaris but also the trekking trips on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Kenya. A newly added product is the tailored beach holiday plan mostly on the Zanzibari Island. Simba Safaris has its own customized 4 x 4 Land Cruiser vehicles and the policy is to ensure that every customer gets a window seat. This is in keeping with the luxury theme of comfort and utility. Every customer is also given a pair of binoculars and other complimentary treats from the Simba Safaris office. The company is licensed in both Kenya and tanzia and operates under the East Africa laws. Diagnosis Simba Safaris over the years has been subject to various factors that have affected the performance of the company. A big factor that has hit the Simba Safaris are the growth in terror attacks along the east African shoreline. The rise of Al-Shabaab, which has links to Al-Qaeda, has proven a big threat to the tourism industry in coastal East Africa. There have been attacks on tourists who visited the coast, mainly along the Kenyan coastline (Davids, 2014). This has served to hurt the current set-up and Simba Safaris has also suffered. This affects revenue and unless changes in structure are implemented, it is an area in which the company will continually suffer. The rise of competitors also factors in this case. There has been a steady increase in the number of competitors in the tourism industry. The nature of competition is such that slight disruptions cause massive losses in the long run. In an industry where word of mouth is crucial, the increased competition has brought about the need to improve and perfect standards. A disgruntled customer can easily cut short their stay and move on to another company. If such a customer passes on unfavorable reviews to other customers then this will affect the company unfavorably. The advancement of technology also makes it a big reason why change is necessary. With social media now a norm in everyday life, bad news travels fast. A negative experience by one customer can reach thousands of potential customers in a few minutes. It is also a suitable medium to share positive news. Almost every organization now has a Facebook page and this increases the ability to interact as well as market oneself. Cautious management of this asset is necessary and a change of mentality is required. In the same bracket are online forums where like-minded people meet and discuss. It is no longer possible to limit damage when a customer’s experience goes sour. The offended customer can easily log into a tourism forum and vent his/her frustrations. This leads to negative publicity which is detrimental to the company. The past recession that took place as of 2007 – 2009 greatly affected economic spending power (Davids, 2014). Most of Simba Safaris customers come from the U.S. and Europe. With the recession hitting hard in those areas, revenues slumped. Dependence on foreign cash flows has left the company at the mercy of international economic conditions. A move to incorporating measures that counter this is necessary. Local tourism is touted as being able to help even in the off-peak season. Tourism in East Africa is highly dependent on peak periods. Conflicting seasons mean that cold weather in Europe and America coincides with warm weather in most tourist spots in East Africa. All this shows that there is definitely a need to change for the company so that it can counter the threats to its successful operations. Kotter’s Eight Step Approach to change Step 1: Creating a sense of urgency Simba Safaris should get the entire company on board. The main reason for failure is that most companies take this stage lightly. This initial stage is a serious one and it is where many companies fail. The management of Simba Safaris should not underestimate the difficulties in changing people’s thinking. Most are resistant to change and prefer sticking to their comfort zones. To create effective urgency, the plan for Simba should involve more than statistics. There should be a concerted effort by management to convince the employees on the need to change. Simba’s management should identify potential threats like the insecurity and explain the resultant scenarios for the employees to understand the consequences. They should make sure that 75% of the group actively believes in making a change (Kotter, 1996). This means that failure to capture the minds of a large part of the group can result in serious failure at stage one. This can be backed up by comments from stakeholders, views from customers as well as other people in the industry. All this is to convince people to come out of their comfort zones and embrace the change whole-heartedly. Step 2: Forming a guiding coalition The company should ensure that there is a powerful guiding coalition in place (Kotter & Cohen, 2002). Not everyone will accept the changes necessary at first. The group should include a good number of senior management who buy into the idea of change. This is mainly to ensure that there is a considerable amount of power in the change team. This enables the team to continue forward with the change even if some sectors resist it. Even though Simba is family owned, it is not enough for the top three to agree on change without backing it up with a few other relevant senior parties. This means that the process will have backing from a powerful group of the company. Simba’s management should ensure that this group has credibility. It should command respect from other members of the organization. There should be varied expertise so that all relevant areas are represented. For example, excluding the head of advertising could prove a wrong choice. This person could frustrate outreach programs. Since this is an industry that demands heavy publicity, the change could fail very early on. The people chosen should also be natural leaders (Kotter, 1988). This is to ensure that they can pass the message to the rest of the organization in an effective manner. Step 3: Developing a vision of change Simba should ensure that it has a clear vision for the goals it wants to achieve. Having a clear vision is very advantageous to the change process. This is because its employees will have a simplified version of the direction the process is to take (Kotter, 1996). Clarity of vision also serves to motivate people in doing things the right way. This is even though the process may be difficult. For example, if the company wants to be the best in the region then it should specify being best in a specific area or more. This helps departments know exactly what is required and even motivates them to achieving this target. The vision Simba has should be imaginable to its employees as well as being: communicable, desirable, feasible, flexible and focused. This ensures a smooth flow when it comes to working the change plan. Step 4: Communicating the vision The senior management of Simba should ensure that constant communication of the vision to employees is maintained. A one-time announcement is not enough to capture the co-operation required. A simple and vivid message is necessary to ensure that the message is passed along. An exciting approach to this helps relieve the mundane nature of most of these sessions. A lively session is bound to stick longer in the mind and provide more motivation. The top management of Simba should also follow on their word act as well as speak. Backing up their actions with words ensures that the rest of the company will be more willing to follow suit (Kotter & Cohen, 2002). Step 5: Doing away with obstacles to the company’s vision Simba can survey the barriers to change. This is usually the human element. Non-human barriers are normally easier to deal with. Those can be eradicated quickly and efficiently. The human element will include staffs who want to frustrate the process. This means that bringing these barriers on board becomes the next requirement. This empowers the people for the change to be able to move forward (Kotter, 1996). Failure to do so can lead to Simba failing in their objectives. Step 6: Focus on the creation of wins in the short-term A taste of success will serve to double motivation (Erskine, 2013). Simba should ensure that the employees get a feel of success in the short term. This goes a long way in ensuring that the long term target is achieved. If an advertising promotion by Simba on a large network like CNN increases immediate sales, then the employees will be more motivated to improve quality of service. Simba should choose suitable short term targets that can be achieved with reasonable effort. This means that each small win builds up psyche within the ranks. This drives the members of the organization to achieving the big long term target. Simba can decide to make sure that they sublet outside security to accompany tour guides. With such increased safety measures, a short term boost in numbers will compensate for the cost. This will ensure that most of the team will be motivated by this success. Rewarding the people responsible for the success of the target also contributes to motivating the whole group. This means other sectors will also be determined to improve their sections so as to be part of the rewards the next time. Step 7: Building on the platform of change Once a target is achieved, Simba Safaris should not let up. The organization should ensure that it continues to look for even more success. Achieving one success is good but repeated success is even better. That is a better indication of progress and it serves to highlight real gains. At this stage there is always still resistance. The management of Simba should ensure to maintain standards so that any detractors cannot take advantage to shoot down the process in case of failure. Slowing down can lead to a loss of momentum and this can negatively affect the process. Even after a victory, an analysis of what can be improved should be done. Strong leadership is necessary at this stage to ensure that the gains from the change process are not lost. A deficiency in leadership will lead to stalling of the process (Erskine, 2013). This means that the effort put up to this stage could all potentially be for nothing. Stage 8: Cement the changes in the culture of the organization This is one of the harder stages to succeed in. At the end, most employees at Simba Safaris may be tempted to relax and abandon the actions that led to the change (Kotter, 1996). The senior management at Simba should ensure that this becomes a culture at the company. It should not be incorporated in the day-to-day activities of the organization. The leaders at the company should also still support the change. Failure to lend support at this stage can lead to obstacles cropping up and derailing the process. This will lead to the need to go back several steps to remedy the problem. The successes of the process should be visible to everyone. This reinforces the need to stick with the new system. If the employees at Simba can see that the changes introduced have led to more tourists and more revenues, they will be motivated to keep in the same direction. Proving that the new way is superior to the old way also helps reinforce this. Tradition at an organization is very powerful. To ensure that the new ways are not dwarfed in comparison, highlighting the positive side is crucial. The management at Simba should continuously hype the successes. It should also recognize the contributions of key players to the success of the process (Kotter & Cohen, 2002). To ensure creation of a new culture, in case the key leaders move on the management should adequately replace them to ensure their efforts are not lost. Conclusion For Simba Safaris, initiating the Kotter’s Model will see a clear improvement in fortunes. Dealing with the insecurity by outsourcing security can serve to assuage fears over the safety of customers. This can also serve to enhance the luxury tag by looking like they provide ‘bodyguards’. A change of procedures is very much required to counter the need for change. Increased competition means adopting competitive advantage structures can lead to a big shoot in the revenues. It means the firm can take advantage of new technologies especially since it is in a developing economy. Such an economy is growing at a rapid rate and provides a platform for increasing revenues. Implementing these change strategies means that Simba Safaris can take advantage as well as revitalize its operations in the regions. Success in this change means it can continue the process by expanding outside the East Africa area. The Kotter’s Model is one that would fit well with Simba Safaris and help it in achieving success in its operations. References Davids, J. (2014, January 29). Kenya,Rwanda,Uganda : EAST AFRICAN TOURISM KENYA Comes to UGANDA and RWANDA. Mena Report, p. 20. Erskine, P. (2013). ITIL and Organizational Change. Ely: IT Governance Publishing. Kotter, J. P. (1988). The leadership factor. New York: Free Press ;. Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading change. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press. Kotter, J. P., & Cohen, D. S. (2002). The heart of change: real-life stories of how people change their organizations. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press. Simba Safaris | Safaris to Tanzania, Kenya,Zanzibar, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Deep Sea Diving. (n.d.). Simba Safaris | Safaris to Tanzania, Kenya,Zanzibar, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Deep Sea Diving. Retrieved April 20, 2014, from http://www.simbasafaris.com Read More